Price
by MagicInMe123
Summary: Aubrey's given the opportunity to have exactly what she's always wanted. But is she willing to accept that it might cost her the love of her life? Triple Treble
1. Chapter 1

Beca Mitchell used to love Tuesday's. They were always her favorite day because she usually ended Bella's practice a little bit early in order to get home to her two beautiful girlfriends. Aubrey was a third year law student and Chloe was a third year medical student and coincidentally, Tuesday's happened to be their lightest homework nights. Needless to say, relaxation time for the three of them all together was difficult to come by and Beca was extremely excited.

On this particular Tuesday, Beca was particularly excited. All day she had been looking forward to their pre-planned pizza/cuddling session that would hopefully lead to mind-blowing sex, despite Aubrey's insistence that she needed to get to sleep early and Chloe's half-hearted protests about a proper 8 hour sleep cycle. The short brunette smiled as the butterflies infiltrated her stomach at the thought of the ginger and blonde. Since they'd started dating promptly after nationals of her freshman year, Beca had truly never been happier. Of course she'd been tentative at first, she'd never been someone to let others into her heart before but it was even more daunting when she considered Chloe and Aubrey were already part of an established relationship of 2 years. Slowly, the tattooed girl had let herself fall for the two and they caught her every step of the way. Currently, the senior was leading the Bella's through the choreography session of practice to prepare for worlds.

"Beca come on you know we haven't done cardio all week, we need a break," Fat Amy whined at the captain.

"Yeah if we don't stop soon I'm not going to have enough energy for sex later and that's just not an option," Stacy said seriously. Beca laughed at the girl's antics and nodded.

"Okay, I'll do you one better, I'm cutting practice short. Rest up, practice again tomorrow at 9," she announced.

"Yes!" Emily squealed, as she started to dance around. Cynthia Rose just shook her head in disappointment and Fat Amy coughed loudly "legacy"

Beca quickly trotted over to her cell phone, anxious to read the cute texts her girlfriends had undoubtedly sent her during practice. She unlocked her phone to 9 missed calls, 4 from Chloe and 5 from Aubrey as well as 11 text messages. Panic started to well up in her chest. What had happened? Were her girls okay? The blue-eyed girl quickly opened the imessages.

 _Aubrey:_ Beca I know you're in Bella's rehearsal right now but an urgent matter has come up. Please call me as soon as you get this.

 _Aubrey:_ Seriously Beca I need you to call me ASAP

 _Aubrey:_ CALL ME

 _Aubrey:_ Beca please call me right now

 _Aubrey:_ Beca!

 _Chloe:_ Hey baby, please call me or Aubrey as soon as you can. It's super important, k? I love you

 _Chloe:_ Becs it's super important that you call us ASAP

 _Chloe:_ Beca you're starting to scare me, usually you stop for a water break before now, is everything okay?

 _Chloe:_ Please call me

 _Aubrey:_ Beca Mitchell if you don't call me in the next 10 minutes I'm coming back to campus and I'm dragging your ass back to the apartment.

 _Chloe:_ Beca it's so important that you call as soon as you can.

The small girl was shocked by all the urgent messages and missed calls; she immediately dialed Chloe's number and pressed the phone to her ear as she stumbled to get her practice stuff together.

Chloe picked up on the first ring

"Beca! Finally we've been calling you for hours!" Chloe's voice cracked, she sounded on the verge of tears.

"Chloe what's wrong? What happened?" Beca questioned urgently, existing the auditorium after a hasty goodbye to the Bellas.

"Is that Beca?" Aubrey shouted in the background.

"It's okay Becs calm down. You're on speaker now and Aubrey's here." Chloe soothed, controlling her own voice after hearing how upset her shorter girlfriend sounded.

"Tell me what's wrong," Beca pleaded, already beginning her walk back to their shared apartment complex.

"What took you so long to call? I get that you had rehearsal but Jesus Christ Beca it's been almost 3 hours," Aubrey berated her, the stress creeping into her voice.

"I know, I didn't take any water breaks because I knew I planned on ending it early so I could be there early for our date tonight. How was I supposed to know there would be an emergency?" Beca snapped, already irritated with Aubrey's shortness with her. How was she to know that this would be the day for her girlfriend's to have an emergency.

"Aubrey save it. Beca please just come home, we're sitting in the living room there's something we need to talk to you about," Chloe said, quickly defusing the argument about to start between her blonde and brunette girlfriends.

Beca's heart sank into her chest. Her greatest fear in the relationship was that there would come a day when Chloe and Aubrey decided that they didn't need her anymore and could be happier with just each other. She always knew it was a possibility and it crushed her heart each time she considered it.

"I – yeah okay," Beca answered awkwardly, her voice now void of any emotions.

"Becs it's not what you're thinking, don't do that. Don't shut down," Chloe pleaded, recognizing the emotional withdrawal in her girlfriend's voice.

Aubrey's voice softened "I'm sorry Beca, I'm just really stressed out and I need to tell you what's going on. It's okay baby, we're all okay."

"Yeah, I'll be there soon," Beca cleared her throat, completely brushing off their comforting words as a familiar blush crept onto her cheeks. She was embarrassed her girlfriends could read her so easily.

The younger girl quickly turned on her radio and popped in one of her mixes to help her de-stress. Her suspicions were still high and she was totally unsure of what she was walking in to. Beca hated surprises.

She quickly arrived at the apartment and practically sprinted up the stairs. Now out of breath, Beca trudged to their door, unlocked it and stepped into the living room. As promised, Chloe and Aubrey were sitting there looking as beautiful as ever. Chloe stood up immediately; her clear blue eyes quickly found Beca's stormy ones and calmed the younger girl's nerves. The ginger pulled her girlfriend into a hug and whispered "relax, everything is going to be fine," in her ear. Whether it was true or not, it did the trick, most of the tension left Beca's muscles and she melted into Chloe's embrace.

Aubrey cleared her throat quietly.

"Beca please sit down," The law student requested.

Chloe unwrapped herself from around Beca and the brunette looked up and took stock of the older girl. Her blonde hair, usually utter perfection was frazzled and slightly out of place, her bright green eyes held panic and stress and her posture was so perfect the youngest girl was afraid her spine might snap.

"Please tell me what's going on, Bree what happened? Why are you so stressed?" Beca questioned.

Aubrey sighed and shared a look with Chloe, who met her gaze sadly.

"Beca you know about my father. You know what kind of man he is," Aubrey began "He and I had lunch this afternoon and some things came up."

"What kind of things?" Beca questioned immediately picking up on her girlfriend's hesitance.

Again Aubrey shared a pitying look with Chloe, who squeezed her hand for support before turning her full attention on her shorter girlfriend.

"As you know, as far as my father is concerned Chloe is my only girlfriend. He barley accepted the fact that I was in love with one woman, we all know he would disown me for loving two," Aubrey told her, pity forming in her eyes again "He invited me to lunch today because I will be turning 25 soon, which means I will be able to have a full time leadership position at his law firm. The details are fuzzy but eventually he wants me to take over his company."

"Bree that's amazing!" Beca grinned, her pride evident. "Seriously that's so awesome dude!"

The brunette's good spirits dropped quickly as she observed the sadness still taking up residence in both of her girlfriend's eyes. Aubrey looked guilty as hell and refused to look at anything but the floor and Chloe was watching her carefully with her "protective Chloe" look.

Dead air filled the room.

"This is good right? Like this is what you always wanted, isn't it?" Beca questioned Aubrey carefully, looking to Chloe for help. The ginger quietly crossed the room and joined Beca on the couch and taking the smaller girl's hands in her own.

Realizing Aubrey was struggling, Chloe took over for her.

"Baby, it is amazing," The older girl squeezing her hands gently "But of course, her father had some…conditions."

"Conditions?" Beca questioned, confused, "Like what?"

Chloe's eyes filled with tears. If there was one thing she hated more than anything else in the world it was hurting her loved ones. Especially her Beca and her Aubrey and this was going to destroy the young alt girl.

"My father has demanded that before I take my first step to being in control of Posen Enterprises, I need to get married. To Chloe." Aubrey said solemnly, her voice breaking twice.

"I am so, so sorry Beca," The blonde chocked out, feeling nauseous.

Beca's hands dropped from Chloe's immediately. Her blood ran cold and her heart plummeted into her stomach. It was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. She felt two pairs of concerned eyes desperately waiting for any reaction from her.

"Say something please, anything," Chloe begged, her own eyes filling with water at the look of pure devastation on her girlfriend's face.

"What do you want me to say?" Beca said, her voice completely drained. "The loves of my life are marrying each other and leaving me," the brunette chuckled darkly.

Aubrey and Chloe gasped

"No, no no it's not like that!" Aubrey promised, sobs working their way out of her throat.

"Becs, please listen to us. We love you. We're in love with you. So, so much. No one has decided anything yet. We're just telling you what's happening so we can make a decision together. No one is leaving you," Chloe swore, passion filling her baby blue eyes.

Beca remained silent and dropped her head into her hands, defeated. Both girls watched her shoulders slump. Chloe scooted closer to her girlfriend, seeing her shake with silent sobs and tears she knew her closed off girlfriend would never let fall. Beca flinched away when she felt Chloe's arm on her own and scowled at the ground much like Aubrey had before. Chloe quickly pulled her onto her lap and tightly wrapped the brunette in a warm embrace. Immediately the younger girl resisted, trying to free herself from her girlfriend's arms but before she could wiggle free Aubrey joined her other side, protectively wrapping her arms around both of her girlfriends.

"Let go of me, I'm fine," Beca huffed, her lie clear as day.

"I need you to understand that no one is leaving you. Not me, not Chloe. Ever." Aubrey promised the brunette and ignoring her declaration.

"I can't deal with this right now. I'm exhausted," Beca deflected, still struggling to free herself from the embrace.

"Becs please, talk to us," Chloe pleaded.

"I need to think," Beca told them quietly. "Please just…give me some room to think."

Aubrey locked eyes with Chloe, silently telling her girlfriend to give Beca the space she needed. Aubrey understood better than anyone Beca's need to process things alone. She understood that her stormy-eyed girlfriend was emotionally stunted and probably extremely overwhelmed right now. She wanted to convey to Beca that she was there for her, but respected her need for space. Of course the blonde wanted more than anything access to the thoughts in her girlfriend's mind but she knew that if she pushed her, Beca would shut both her and Chloe out entirely.

The former Bellas captains nodded, releasing Beca from their embrace but studying her closely. The brunette got up and quickly slipped into the shower. The graduate students heard the door lock and the sound of running water.

Aubrey sighed sadly, looking distressed. "What are we going to do Chlo?"

"Bree we'll get this figured out. We always do." The ginger replied, wrapping her girlfriend of almost 5 years in a hug and massaging her shoulders.

"Did you see her face?" Aubrey whispered brokenly.

Chloe's heart sank too, the guilt overwhelming her at the thought of her Beca in the shower crying alone.

"What if this pushes her away? You know how s-she is Chloe, she'll close up and I can't lose her," Aubrey cried, sobs escaping her chest.

"Shhh, Bree you're okay. We're okay. We're gonna get her through this. We're going to make sure she understands that we're just as in love with her as we are with each other. Babe everything is going to be okay. You have to trust that our love is strong enough for anything. Even this," Chloe told her quietly, rubbing slow circles on her back comfortingly.

"I love you so much Chloe. Beca completes us and I feel so horrible for how this is happening but marrying you would make me the happiest woman alive. I'm so lucky to be in love with you and Beca," Aubrey chocked out, trying to regain her composure.

Chloe smiled softly, her stunning eyes full of love as she captured Aubrey's lips with her own.

"Ditto," the ginger winked back.

Aubrey let out a tiny laugh and a hiccup as her tears dried up and she calmed down.

"We should probably order something for dinner; maybe try to coax Becs into eating with us. I'm sure she has questions," Chloe said softly.

Aubrey nodded and smiled softly "you're right. I'll call for pizza, she loves pizza."

Chloe went to change into more comfortable clothes than her scrubs from her shift at the hospital, she'd been so stressed out about breaking the news Beca that she found herself unable to do anything but pace in the living room. The ginger sighed as she let some of the anxiety seep from her body. She knew that watching her and Aubrey get married would bring out Beca's greatest insecurities that she and Aubrey had been trying their best to heal. She honestly felt terrible, on one hand of course she wanted to marry Aubrey, but only if Beca was somehow in the marriage as well and with Mr. and Mrs. Posen having any part of their lives made that impossible. Her heart truly broke for her girlfriend and Chloe vowed to spend all her time trying to fix things. There had to be a way to save both of her girlfriends without causing their amazing, flawless, unmatchable relationship to fall apart.

There just had to be.

 **So far it's just a one-shot but if people like it and want me to continue I will! Thanks so much for reading and I love feedback!**

 **-Magic**


	2. Chapter 2

It took every ounce of Beca's self control not to punch a hole in the wall of their walk-in shower. The stormy-eyed girl had no idea how she was still standing because she was shaking so hard. It was next to impossible for her to maintain a coherent thought. Were her girlfriends really going to get married to each other and expect that everything would be fine with her? And how exactly did they plan on explaining to people that Chloe and Aubrey lived together as a married couple, but for some reason Beca lived there too? Logically the alt girl supposes she should have seen this coming. Chloe and Aubrey were both brilliant and beautiful and getting ready to start the rest of their lives; considering both girls are finishing up graduate school it only made sense for them to take their relationship to the next level.

On the other hand, what if Beca was just stuck in her own head and they really did love her? What if they wanted to make this work? She couldn't actually say no to Aubrey and deny her what she'd always dreamed of, running her father's company. Beca Mitchell was a lot of things, but selfish would not be one of them.

Sighing, Beca finally turned off the scolding water and stepped out from under the comforting spray. The brunette had absolutely no desire to have this impossible conversation with her girlfriends but she knew that she couldn't just hide in the bathroom forever. As she wrapped her towel delicately around her body and threw a matching one over her hair, her eyes were drawn to the grasshopper tattoo she sported on the inside of her wrist. A smile small crossed over the young girl's face as she remembered when times were simple; when she was just a rebellious teenager whose biggest concern was pissing off her mom and mixing music. Now she had the most serious relationship of her life in turmoil, she was expected to lead her a capella group to world victory and on top of it, she was about to graduate college and get a job as a music producer. Suddenly she felt exhausted; Beca still needed to edit the set list for worlds and rework a few parts of the choreography before tomorrow morning's 9 am practice and she needed to study for her theology test the next day.

Huffing, Beca left the bathroom and hurriedly went into her bedroom. The apartment that the three of them shared had three relatively small individual bedrooms due to the fact that no one outside of the Bella knew that Beca was in any way part of Chloe and Aubrey's relationship. While two of the three rooms were mostly for show, they came in handy after a fight between the three of them or when Beca needed to work on a mix or Aubrey had a case or Chloe needed to study. The cerulean-eyed girl slipped on a big t shirt and some flannel pajama bottoms and made her way into the kitchen. As she predicted, Aubrey and Chloe were sitting at the table clutching cups of coffee and whispering to each other. Beca thought they both looked absolutely stunning and so exhausted. It was as if her girls aged 10 years in the time it took her to shower. As always, they noticed her right away.

"Beca," Chloe said suddenly, light coming into her eyes.

"We ordered pizza. Hawaiian, just like you love," Aubrey said softly. The blonde looked substantially calmer than she had earlier, a lot of the tension was gone from her shoulders and her eyes still held anxiety, but had softness now.

"Thanks," Beca murmured, she had absolutely no desire to eat anything but it was still sweet of her girlfriends to think of her.

Noticing how Beca made no move to get food, Chloe's good mood dampened. She knew that her shorter girlfriend didn't like to eat when things were bothering her and the ginger knew how stressed Beca had been recently about worlds. Chloe looked her girlfriend up and down; noticing that she was swimming in her big t-shirt and her face looked more pale than usual. Red rimmed her eyes, evidence to confirm Chloe's theory that their Beca had been crying. Dark bags were now noticeable on Beca's makeup-free face and her cheek bones looked slightly more prominent than usual. She looked downright exhausted.

Aubrey sighed, also noticing her girlfriend's lack of appetite. She looked over at Chloe and saw the devastation in the ginger's eyes and the blonde too noticed the apparent fatigue of her girlfriend.

"Beca, baby I'm sorry I yelled at you before. You didn't do anything wrong, I of all people know that cell phone usage is strictly prohibited at Bella's rehearsals," Aubrey began.

"It's fine," Beca said quickly, playing with a strand of her wet hair.

Aubrey started to shake her head "No, Beca it's not. None of this is fine."

"No, it's fine. Aubrey I get it. You didn't exactly get a choice right?" Beca asked sarcastically.

Chloe shook her head, cutting off whatever Aubrey was about to say next "Beca we have so much to talk about, why don't we just go in the living room and curl up and work this out?"

"No Chloe I don't want to go sit in the living room and cuddle and work this out. You're the future married couple, why don't you guys go sit in the living room and work things out yourselves because obviously you don't need me for anything." Beca's voice trembling the entire time.

Chloe and Aubrey felt their hearts break, knowing their dj girlfriend only went on the offense when she was truly hurt.

"Beca, I –"Chloe began only to be cut off

"Save it. I'm going to bed." The brunette said finally, exhaustion creeping into her voice. Beca quietly left the room, angry with herself for losing her cool on Aubrey and Chloe before they even had the chance to talk to her. She knew that wasn't fair to them but she was so _fucking_ tired and stressed out and this was the last thing she needed. Tomorrow, Beca sighed to herself. She'd do better tomorrow.

Chloe rose to go after their short girlfriend but a soft hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Let her go, Chlo," the blonde told her softly. Aubrey of all people understood their Beca's need to process alone. Pushing her right now would only make things worse.

"She's so hurt Bree. I can't stand the thought of her bottling all this up," Chloe whimpered, her brilliant blue eyes filling with tears.

Aubrey quickly pulled her girlfriend into her arms "Chlo it's okay. Everything's okay. She's not alone, we're right here and whenever she'd ready, we'll be right here for her."

Chloe nodded into the embrace, sniffling slightly.

"Come on," Aubrey said quietly, rising from her seat and bringing the ginger up with her, "We can at least go say goodnight. We always say goodnight."

The pair crossed the living room and knocked gently on Beca's door, slightly hurt but not surprised that she didn't even want to spend the night with them.

"Becs come on. At least say goodnight," Chloe asked softly.

They heard a shuffling noise and some bed springs move and then suddenly Beca was standing in from of them, arms crossed and eyes looking anywhere but at them.

Without a second thought both girls pulled their girlfriend into a hug.

"Becs we have to talk about this. I know you're exhausted, we can see it in your eyes so we're just gonna get some sleep but tomorrow we're going to figure all this out. All we know for sure is that we're staying together. The three of us, no matter what because Bree and I are in love with you and we wouldn't be "us" without you. Everything is going to be okay," Chloe whispered, her voice cracking with emotion a few times.

"Nothing in this world could ever take us from you Beca," Aubrey added seriously, her own eyes tearing up slightly.

Beca shuddered in the embrace and it became apparent to the older girls that Beca was crying. Gently, the grad students lead their girlfriend Beca to the bed and re-wrapped themselves around her. They whispered words of comfort and placed gentle kisses all over her face until the brunette fell asleep. Chloe let out a sigh of relief when she felt the smallest girl's breathing even out.

"We have to fix this Bree," Chloe murmured, squeezing the blonde's hand from across the bed.

"We will Chlo, we just have to be patient," Aubrey promised.

"Yeah, I just hope Beca can be," Chloe said, casting a worried look at their sleeping girlfriend.

Aubrey sighed, she did too.

 **So I didn't really proof read that so hopefully there aren't too many errors. I got some really amazing feedback from you guys because you're amazing, thank you so so much and I have decided to make this into an actual story. Thank you so much for reading!**

 **-Magic.**


	3. Chapter 3

As it turned out however, the girls didn't actually get a chance to talk the next morning. When Beca woke up, she looked to her left and saw that her ginger girlfriend was nowhere to be found. Sitting up, she heard the shower water running and Aubrey's favorite shower playlist blasting through the apartment. Frowning, Beca checked the clock to see that it was already 8:15.

"Shit!" The brunette grumbled, darting out of bed. Bellas rehearsals started in 45 minutes and if she didn't get it together she'd be late. The brunette stumbled out of bed and pieced together a decent outfit for rehearsals, threw her hair up in a messy bun and grabbed her mixing equipment, shoving it all in her Bellas gym bag. The youngest girl was in such a hurry she didn't even notice her blonde girlfriend exit the shower and enter the room.

"Beca what's wrong?" The taller girl asked, her eyebrows creased in worry.

Beca's head snapped around so fast she was sure she'd get whiplash "What? No, nothing's wrong I'm just going to be late," she said, the frustration creeping into her voice. Her concern for her brunette girlfriend grew the longer Aubrey watched her pace around like a caged animal trying to get her stuff together. Aubrey had to be at the law firm at 9 but she couldn't bear to see Beca so stressed out. Having dealt with stress issues for so many years, the taller girl was kind of an expert on handling things completely the wrong way. She couldn't believe she and Chloe hadn't noticed that their girlfriend's stress levels went deeper than they saw, Beca was obviously way more anxious than they'd ever seen her but they'd both been so wrapped up in the early stages of their law and medical careers.

"Hey, it's okay," Aubrey began gently "I'll drop you off at practice on the way to the firm okay?" Aubrey cross the room slowly, attempting to calm her girlfriend down she gently reached out and touched the brunette's shoulder.

"No it's fine," Beca dismissed "See you tonight."

Aubrey heard a door slam and then she was alone. She really needed to fix this.

* * *

The girls didn't actually all have a night off together again until the following Sunday. To say things were tense would be an understatement. Beca was stressed constantly with the Bellas and school. When she wasn't at rehearsals, which were always, she was in the library studying or working on a mix down at the radio station. It seemed like the only time the brunette was ever at the apartment was to sleep, which she had started making a habit of doing so in her own room. Chloe was so busy with her med school that she pulled insane shifts at the hospital and Aubrey spent countless hours at the firm. All three of the girls were exhausted. The older girls had noticed Beca's lack of sleeping in general, particularly in the bedroom the three of them typically share. They had confronted her about it via text but the stormy-eyed girl had blown them off, insisting that she just didn't want to wake them up with her strange schedule knowing how tired they were.

Finally, Sunday morning rolled around and Chloe and Aubrey were sitting in the kitchen having their coffee. Their brunette girlfriend had pulled the night shift on Saturday and both girls knew that Beca had hardly slept at all on Friday seeing how she didn't even come home until 4 am and then was gone when the two seniors woke up at 8:30.

Chloe sighed into her coffee mug "Bree we have to talk to her. She's not sleeping and I'm scared for her."

The blonde nodded in agreement, "I am too Chlo, I'm worried that I just made it worse with the marriage. If only I could just get her to listen to me I think we'd be okay but we haven't talked or kissed or held her in days. I can only imagine how she feels."

Chloe's heart sank into her chest while remembering her extremely limited interaction with Beca all week. Honestly she felt terrible about all of it. She would give anything to trade places and let Beca be in their public marriage but the ginger knew how Aubrey's Dad felt about a 'supportive spouse' being present before he allowed any legitimate control to go to Aubrey.

Just as they began to discuss their plan to talk to Beca, they heard keys jingle and saw their girlfriend fumble through the door.

She looked dead on her feet, her eyes were hallowed and her usually lively hair fell flat.

"Beca," Chloe exclaimed and shot out of her seat. She crossed the room and swiftly pulled her younger girlfriend into her arms and held her. Chloe felt some of the brunette's muscles relax as she sank into the embrace.

"Hey Chlo," Beca muttered into her shoulder.

Aubrey got up too and walked over to her two girlfriends, wrapping her arms around them both and relishing in how much like home it felt.

"Becs we've missed you so much," The former Bella's captain said softly.

Beca cleared her throat and pulled back from their hug stiffly "I've missed you guys too." Chloe and Aubrey shared a glance, unsure of their girlfriend's sudden change in demeanor.

"Beca we really need to talk. We've been putting it off for days and I know you're tired but we really need to do this," Chloe pleaded with the youngest girlfriend.

"Chlo I'm so fucking tired, can we please just not?"

"Actually we can't just not. Beca I'm not throwing this relationship away just because you don't feel like having a conversation," Aubrey said harshly. She knew that Chloe would cave, knowing how concerned she was for Beca's sleep so she had to step in and be the bad cop. She hated it, she would love to just tell Beca she could go sleep and their problems could wait but they'd waited almost a week now and things were just going from bad to worse.

"Seriously? You're serious right now? I'm the one throwing this relationship away?" Beca gawked. Bitter laughs came out of her lungs in the most heart-breaking of ways. Tears filled Chloe's eyes as she began to see just how hurt her girlfriend was by the whole ordeal.

"You're the ones throwing this away. Throwing me away. And why? Because your fucking Daddy told you to. And you knew, you knew the entire time that I was always concerned that this day would come and it's finally here and not even because of anything I did, because fucking Daddy Posen can't handle who you really are." Beca ranted, tears that she refused to let fall filled here eyes. "Or maybe, maybe it is me and you guys just don't have the g-guts to tell me. Well you know what? Sorry I'm not good enough for you. Or for your Dad or for my Dad, for that matter, or my mom or the Bellas. Anything else? Am I forgetting anyone else that I'm not enough for?"

Harsh, bitter sobs were now escaping from the alt girl's throat. Her entire frame was shaking her body looked like it was about to collapse from exhaustion at any moment.

Chloe and Aubrey stood in shock, their jaws practically on the floor. They had no idea that their young snarky girlfriend's insecurities ran so deep. Chloe knew that medically Beca was on the verge of a breakdown mostly due to her lack of sleep; usually the girl would never be so upfront about her feelings with them. The ginger once again shared an intense look with her girlfriend, who was equally stunned.

"Beca…." Aubrey trailed off

"Don't," The younger girl snapped.

Silence

"I'm sorry," Beca let out a shaky breath. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for…that to…y'know."

Aubrey was already shaking her head "Don't apologize it's alright. I should have known better than to drop a bomb like that on you while you're so busy with worlds and graduating and everything."

"Becs when was the last time you ate? Or slept?" Chloe asked, the concern prevalent in her voice. Both the older girls were scanning Beca up and down, noticing her nearly skeletal frame.

"It's nothing Chlo," The brunette bristled "I just haven't had a lot of time to sit down and eat between Bellas and school and my job, it's just a lot but I'm handling it."

Aubrey scoffed "Beca you're not handling it. You're ignoring it."

Beca fought her urge to snipe back at her blonde girlfriend and nodded "I'll watch it this week."

Chloe nodded, still worried and not at all believing the short girl but not wanting to push her anymore tonight.

"Can we please just talk for a few minutes and then you can go get some sleep?" The ginger pleaded.

One look at Chloe's puppy dog eyes and Aubrey's gentle smile and Beca was a goner. Ignoring her urge to run away and sleep, the brunette nodded and followed her girlfriends into the living room.

"I guess the most important thing for me to say is I won't do it without you saying it's okay," Aubrey began, her eyes locked on Beca the entire time. "Chloe is the love of my life. But so are you and I will not marry her unless you're comfortable with it. It doesn't have to change anything for the three of us. You'll be just as much our wife as we would be each other's."

"You don't understand Aubrey, there are logistics. How are you going to explain to people why I live with my two married best friends? Or the honeymoon? I'm just supposed to stay here in Georgia while my married girlfriend enjoy some super romantic memories and then get even closer and decide they don't need me anymore?" Beca's voice wavered, tears near the surface again. Chloe, unable to take it anymore pulled Beca onto her laps and slipped her hand under the brunette's shirt, rubbing soothing circles on her back.

"It's okay Becs, you need to breathe," The ginger whispered into her ear, causing the brunette to shiver.

The blonde nodded "Those are all valid points but we'll figure them out. I personally don't give a damn about what anyone thinks. As soon as my father signs over the paperwork that allows me to be in control of Posen Enterprises, we can tell the entire world we're all together if you want. I'll scream it from rooftops Beca, because I am in love with you and nothing is ever going to change that."

"Beca nothing is going to stop us from loving you. You say no and we won't do it. I don't ever want you to feel like you felt," Chloe murmured into the brunette's neck, placing a gentle kiss on it.

Beca nodded absorbing all the information. Finally after several minutes of nothing but the gentle rhythm of Chloe rubbing circles on Beca's back the alt girl nodded.

"Okay."

The two older girls exchanged a look.

"Okay what?" The blonde asked gently.

"Okay, I'm not going to make you give up your dream for me. We'll do it. I have no idea how yet but as long as we're in it together we can try to make it work," Beca explained tiredly.

Chloe and Aubrey wanted to be ecstatic. They wanted to jump for joy because this was exactly what they'd hoped for; for Beca to be understanding and work through this and stay together and she'd agreed. But with Chloe feeling her ribs so prominently under her shirt and Aubrey staring into the defeated look in her exhausted eyes, the older girls didn't feel joyful, they felt like they'd just broken Beca.

"I should be seeing smiles right now," Beca teased.

Light, forced grins broke onto both girls' faces immediately.

"So does this mean we finally get you back in our bed tonight?" Aubrey asked gently, joining her girls on the couch.

"It just might," Beca smirked, cuddling into Aubrey's side. The girls stayed like that for only a few minutes before the youngest girl's breathing evened out and it was clear she was asleep. Gentle smiles appeared on both Chloe and Aubrey's faces as they looked down at their love.

"Finally she's getting some rest," Aubrey commented.

Chloe nodded in reply "I'm worried about her, she's not taking care of herself at all."

The blonde gently scooped Beca up into her arms and carried her into the bedroom the three of them shared. "She's unbelievably thin Chlo, we need to start watching her."

The med student nodded "I agree, I just finished hours for the month so I can cut back a little, try to be there for her more,"

Some tension eased out of the blonde knowing that Chloe could cut back on her hours at the hospital and catch up on her own sleep.

The three girls curled up in their bed together, safe in each other's arms and hoped for a better tomorrow for all of them.

 **Thank you so much for reading! Please review or PM me any suggestions and whether or not you want Stacie to join the mix? I love feedback!**

 **-Magic**


	4. Chapter 4

"Let's run this one more time," Beca shouted at the Bellas from behind her mixing equipment. It was already the practice from hell. Fat Amy had thrown up at least an entire pizza after their cardio and Stacie kept whispering undoubtedly dirty things in Cynthia-Rose's ears, distracting them both and Jessica and Ashley, well Beca never really knew what the hell to do with them.

The girls groaned collectively.

"Beca come on, world's is like a month away, why are you pushing us so hard?" Flo whined.

"Oh I'm sorry, do you not want to win worlds? Do you want to be responsible for the Bellas being permanently disbanded and never be able to compete again?" Beca snarked, irritated with the girls lack of willingness to work hard.

"Jeez, sorry, we're just tired Capt., no reason to snap on Flo like that," Stacie murmured.

"Oh you're tired Stacie? What, you think I'm not tired? You think Das Sound Machine is worried about being tired? They're not. They practice all day every day and that's why they're the best and we need to be better than the best and if that's not what you want to do then you can just quit now," The brunette practically shouted at the group.

Silence filled the auditorium.

Beca took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "I'm sorry guys, especially you Stace. I'll calling it, practice again tomorrow night at 7 okay? Go home and get some sleep."

The girls were still stunned. They'd seen Beca lose her cool before, they'd seen her punch an old man in the face and then promptly get arrest. Hell, they'd seen her at what they thought was her most stressed out but this was an entirely different level. They all watched as the brunette grabbed her things and stumbled out of the auditorium.

Stacie turned to Fat Amy and CR "Guys we need to do something. I don't know what's going on with her but she's not okay."

Fat Amy nodded in agreement "I've wrestled crocodiles friendlier than she's been lately. It's time for the big guns. I'm calling Chloe."

Cynthia-Rose and Stacie exchanged a look; they both knew that Beca would be furious when she found out that her friends and teammates called one of her girlfriends to report back on her but what choice did they have? It's not like Beca was the type to share her feelings with anyone. They'd just have to hope that the two former Bellas captains could help their current one.

Chloe had just finished assisting/observing a routine tonsil extraction surgery and was currently heading back up to the locker room so she could change out of her scrubs before her girlfriend came to pick her up. She paused in the elevator when she felt her phone buzz; she saw that it was Fat Amy calling, to her surprise and answered.

"Hello?"

"Chloe! My favorite ginger," Fat Amy answered cheerfully.

Chloe laughed "What can I do for you Fat Amy?"

"Err well it's not what you can do for me so much as what you can do for Beca." She said uneasily

"What? What's wrong with Beca?" Chloe asked, immediately concerned.

"See that's just it. She's wound tighter than a dingo at a rally and none of us know what's going on with her. She looks like Bumper after he tries to exercise all the time and she's been pretty err harsh lately with the Bellas." The blonde explained in her thick accent.

"I see," Chloe said trying not to invade Beca's privacy by disclosing what was wrong.

"Anyways, maybe she just needs to get laid or someone to talk to but either way, we figured you and Aubrey were the girls for the job," Fat Amy continued.

"Yeah, no thanks so much for the call. I'll talk to her tonight. It was good to hear from you," Chloe said, wistful of her days as a Bella.

"You too Red, we miss you 'round here. Anyways, got to go, Bumper gets pissy when I make him wait," the Australian said suggestively and then hung up the phone.

A frown settled on the ginger's usually cheerful face. Beca seemed fine around her and Bree; granted they hadn't spent an abundance of time together since their conversation a week ago but Chloe had thought they'd resolved their issues and Beca was doing better. She quickly dialed Aubrey's number and relayed her conversation with Fat Amy to her blonde girlfriend.

Aubrey sighed deeply "I guess she's not doing quite as well as we'd hoped. I'm downstairs, come meet me."

With that Chloe gathered her things and headed down the elevator; once she hit the lobby she saw her beautiful blonde girlfriend there, worry etched into her stunning features and practically tackled her in a hug. Stunned, the taller girl immediately returned the embrace and swiftly pulled Chloe outside the building and into her car where there were no onlookers.

"I feel so guilty Bree. All the time," Chloe confessed, her head still buried in Aubrey's breasts.

"I understand. I feel just as horrible but I thought Beca was doing better, really I did," The blonde said.

"I think," Chloe cleared her throat "I think we need to take her away. Some kind of retreat or something for just the three of us. Show her how much we love her."

Aubrey stared shaking her head before the ginger even finished her sentence "Not going to happen. We both have work and Beca has school and the Bellas."

Chloe deflated for a nanosecond before her cheerful grin popped back into place "So we all get away for the weekend. Just 2 days. We can take her camping!"

Aubrey laughed "Beca hates the outdoors. I was thinking more like a spa getaway."

The redhead's eyes lit up immediately "Okay a million times yes to that. Now we just need to get to her to relax about the Bellas and give the girls one weekend off."

Aubrey grinned "Leave that part to me."

As Beca trudged through the door of her shared apartment, she immediately noticed that both of her girlfriends were missing. It was odd, Beca thought for them both to be gone on the same night. Shrugging the brunette made her way into the living room and turned on her laptop, stuck her headphones on and began to rework the set for worlds. About 20 minutes into her mixing session she felt her stomach grumble painfully and bit her lip to distract herself. She'd played it off to Chloe and Aubrey that she was getting so thin because she simply didn't have the time or remember to eat but in reality it was her only control. When things were crazy with the Bellas and recently with the wedding and even taking her past into account with her parents' divorce and everything, the alt girl never had any control in her life but this, this was all hers. She could choose to not eat for days if she wanted and there was nothing anyone else could do to force her. It felt good; it was a rush to finally have some control.

Not too much later Aubrey and Chloe came through the door together, laughing about something Aubrey had said but the youngest girl didn't even notice them, too into her mix. Chloe smiled gently, seeing Beca so focused on her music had always been one of her favorite things about her girlfriend.

"Hey Becs," Chloe called carefully, trying not to startle the small girl.

Beca turned around so fast her neck hurt and she almost fell out of her chair.

"Jesus fucking Christ you guys scared the shit out of me," Beca breathed out.

Aubrey chuckled lightly and wrapped her arms around her brunette girlfriend from behind, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Sorry Beca, you're just too easy sometimes."

"Whatever," The DJ grumbled relaxing into the embrace. Chloe smiled as she shook her coat off and laid it over the couch; to say things had been tense between Aubrey and Beca lately as an understatement so to see them affectionate was a nice change.

"So listen Becs, we wanted to talk to you about -" The ginger began but was cut off by the developing sight in front on her.

Beca stood up out of her chair and wrapped her arms around her blonde girlfriend, pulling her close so there was virtually no space between them. Surprised but extremely happy, Aubrey wrapped her arms around Beca's tiny waist and rocked her hips into her girlfriend's, sealing their mouths together. Beca moaned into the older girl's mouth and tangled her hands in her gorgeous blonde locks. The former Bella's captain pushed Beca down onto the couch, taking control by locking Beca's wrists in her own with one hand and pushing them above the shorter girl's head. Beca whimpered with desire as Aubrey slowly kissed down her stomach, teasing her.

"Jesus Christ," Chloe breathed, incredibly turned on as she joined her girlfriends on the couch and started unbuttoning Aubrey's shirt.

"God Beca," Aubrey rasped as the younger girl started sucking her neck.

"No hickies," Chloe warned both girls, knowing Beca's love for marking her girls.

The shorter brunette just rolled her eyes and started massaging Chloe's breasts, effectively killing any coherent thought the ginger had.

"Bedroom?" Aubrey rasped out, her hands already on Chloe's zipper.

Her answer was just louder moans and the rustling of bed sheets.

 **Hey guys so this was sort of a shorter chapter. I'm kinda trying to figure out where I want to go from here so if you have any suggestions feel free to share them with me! So next time Chloe and Aubrey will probably try to talk to Beca about how she's been with the Bellas but obviously they're not going to turn down sex, a chance to make their relationship kinda normal again. Anyways, please let me know what you think! Love you guys,**

 **Magic**


	5. Chapter 5

Aubrey woke up the next morning tangled up in messy sheets and body parts. She could vaguely make out Beca's arms around Chloe's stomach and her own arms around Beca's. Not wanting to wake her girls up, she slowly unwrapped herself from the limbs and climbed stealthily out of the bed and started for the kitchen to make coffee.

Chloe woke up next, she glanced to her left and noticed that Aubrey was gone but Beca was still tightly wrapped around her. Looking down at her brunette girlfriend Chloe's eyes widened as she noticed just how skinny her girlfriend had become. Her ribs were protruding out of her stomach, she looked sick. The ginger knew that there was no way this was a healthy weight and wondered why it had taken her so long to notice. The medical student waited helplessly for her girlfriend to arrive back with her coffee and of course she did just moments later.

"Aubrey come here," Chloe whispered, softly enough to not wake their sleeping alt girlfriend.

Aubrey raised her eyebrows, her interest clearly peaked and made her way sleepily over the beautiful redhead.

"What's up babe?" she mumbled sleepily, carefully sliding back into her place on the bed, mindful of her steaming warm liquid. She wrapped the covers gently around herself and moved to cover her still bare girlfriend when a warm hand caught her arm. She glanced at her ginger girlfriend, question clear in her eyes.

"Look at this," Chloe murmured softly, her hands still softly tracing her girlfriend's protruding ribs. Aubrey gasped softly "Holy shit Chlo." The tall blonde's hands roamed over the youngest girl's entire body, feeling the bones and lack of muscle or fat in all the crevices.

"H-How did we not -?" Aubrey chocked out.

"Notice?" Chloe offered, cutting her off and allowing the sadness to creep into her voice. "I was just about to ask the same thing."

Now that the two of them thought about it, they really hadn't seen Beca for more than a few hurried kisses goodbye and the occasional movie night and obviously to sleep in a few weeks. They hadn't had sex, with the exception of last night, in almost 4 weeks.

"What are we gonna do?" Aubrey whispered, her eyes glued to her girlfriend's tiny body, unable to even glance at anything else.

"Medically or as her girlfriends?" Chloe asked, her voice dull.

"Both."

"I don't know Bree. I had no idea it was this bad. Like I knew she wasn't eating well or taking care of herself but this is so…deliberate. There's no way she isn't aware of what's happening to her." Chloe told her girlfriend, taking the blonde's hand off her the stormy-eyed girl's body and taking it in her own hand.

"Do we just confront her?" The green eyed girl questioned.

Chloe shook her head "It feels like we just got done fighting with her about your Dad and the company and then now we have to talk to her about Amy and the Bellas and her weight? It's all so much Bree."

Aubrey sighed "I know Chlo, I know but we can't let her keep going on like this. It's not healthy.

Both girls became silent as they felt something stir next to the redhead. Beca muttered, turning around and curling her still naked body into herself, slowly waking up. Chloe shot Aubrey a warning glance, silently telling her not to jump Beca before she even had time to wake up. The blonde looked a little disappointed but nodded, trusting the pre-med student to know what was best for their girlfriend.

"You guys are up early," the senior groaned, rolling back around and curling into Chloe's side.

The ginger laughed as lightly as she could manage, "I guess you could say that Becs. I mean it's like 10 am, but for you that's practically the middle of the night."

"She's right Beca, usually you'll sleep all the way through lunch," The oldest girl teased.

"More sleep," Beca groaned, pulling a pillow over her face. Aubrey and Chloe suddenly sobered up from their slightly playful mood as they realized Beca had to be downright exhausted considering she'd hardly slept at all in the past few weeks. Exchanging a melancholy look, the two grad students tried desperately to keep the sadness from showing in their face.

"Well, since we're all already up I'll make us some breakfast," Aubrey offered, getting off the bed and padding towards the kitchen.

"Or we eat something else," Beca whispered suggestively in Chloe's ears. A shiver ran down the spine of the former Bella's captain and tingles spread through every inch of her body. She'd forgotten how fucking _sexy_ the brunette could be.

"Becs come on we have to help Bree in the kitchen," Chloe moaned as the younger girl began trailing her body with light, teasing kisses.

"Or, Bree could help us in the bedroom," Beca muttered between kisses.

"Beca come on," Chloe whimpered "that's not fair."

"Life isn't fair," Beca snaked, gently making her way down south of the ginger's waistband.

Something about the bitterness in Beca's tone caused her to snap out of her lust-filled daze and remember that her girlfriend was still starving herself and she needed to address that with her as soon as possible. She reached a hand out below her and caught the brunette's bony wrist before her hand could complete its mission.

"Actually Becs, I wanted to talk to you about something," Chloe began, treading lightly.

Immediately, the older girl could see the guard appear in the other girl's stormy blue eyes.

"What is it?" She asked quickly, the nervous obvious in her tone.

Chloe steeled herself away, preparing for the inevitable meltdown to come.

"Becs you've lost a lot of weight lately. I'm worried, Bree's worried. What's going on with you?" Chloe asked gently, her concerned eyes sweeping Beca's every feature for a hint.

Suddenly Beca wrapped her arms tightly around her middle, as if to hide herself away and her eyes darted around looking for her shirt from the previous night. Her cheeks burned as she felt the awful self-consciousness take over body.

"You sure know how to flatter a girl Beale," the current Bella muttered, trying to keep the tears out of her eyes as embarrassment overtook her.

Chloe's heart shattered into a million pieces at the sight of her girlfriend so embarrassed and insecure. She felt tears prick into her own cerulean eyes know she'd made her Beca feel that way. The taller girl reached around the bed and snagged two t-shirt lying around and promptly handed one to her girlfriend, knowing it would make her more comfortable and sliding one over herself.

"Baby you know I think you're absolutely stunning, always. But you look sick honey, I'm scared for you. I know you're not eating so don't even try to bullshit me," The ginger warned, reaching out to uncoil the younger girl's body.

"Just fuck off Chloe I don't want to talk about it," The brunette snapped, tired of the scrutiny.

Aubrey, who had heard Beca's outburst quickly abandoned any hopes of breakfast and sprinted toward the bedroom before her girlfriends' fight could escalate.

"No you don't get to do that Rebecca," Chloe seethed, knowing her girlfriend hated the use of her full name, "You don't get to tell me to fuck off because you don't want to talk. We're in a relationship and I love you which means no one is going anywhere until we talk about this."

Aubrey sighed sadly at the sight in front of her; Beca and Chloe never fought. Ever. It was always the ginger trying to defuse argument between herself and the smallest girl so to see her girlfriend argue truly broke Aubrey's heart into pieces.

"Stop it," Aubrey said, her captain voice coming out. "Beca you're not running, get dressed, shower, do whatever you need to do but we're sitting in the living room and we're talking about this."

"Of course you're taking Chloe's side, that's so fucking typical. Since you guys are so fucking perfect together, why don't you just get married today and save all of us the pain of pretending that this can work," Beca spat, the bitterness clear in her voice.

Without another word the brunette got out of the bed, grabbed some clean clothes from her drawer and stomped off towards the shower.

Aubrey and Chloe were left in shock watching the door she'd slammed minutes ago.

"She's not even close to okay with it Chloe," Aubrey said sadly, joining her upset girlfriend on the bed and pulling her onto her lap.

"I figured," The redhead responded distantly.

"Hey, don't you check out on me too," Aubrey said lightly, nudging the other girl playfully.

"Sorry Bree, it's just bizarre fighting with her so much. Like it's all the time. I just want us back to the way we were. Between the Bellas and her not eating and our engagement bringing out all those insecurities she probably feels like shit, that's why she's lashing out. All that stress isn't good for her body at all," Chloe told her.

"I know Chlo, it's fucked up. At least she stayed, there's always that," the blonde said hopefully.

Chloe nodded "I actually have an idea. Would you mind finishing up breakfast? Maybe we can coax Becs into eating something."

Aubrey nodded with weary eyes "Are you sure you can handle her on your own? You guys aren't going to start fighting again?"

Chloe winked at her blonde girlfriend "No promises." And with a quick peck to the lips Chloe slipped out of the bed an off in the direction of the shower their brunette girlfriend was currently using.

 **Hey guys, so there's even more issues here. Poor Beca. Thank you so much for reading as always, you guys are amazing. Please let me know if you have any comments or ideas or quetions or anything. More fluff? More angst?**

 **Magic**


	6. Chapter 6

As Chloe sauntered over to the bathroom, fully intending to ambush Beca in the shower for more sexy times, she was immensely disappointed as she turned the door handle, only to realize that her alt girlfriend had locked her out. With a sigh, the ginger returned to the kitchen to help her blonde prepare for the conversation about to happen.

"So do we have a plan?" she asked softly, wrapping her arms around Aubrey's waist from behind and resting her head on the lawyer's shoulders.

Aubrey smiled absently, never forgetting how lucky she was to have girls as sweet and beautiful as Chloe and Beca in her life.

"I've got nothing honestly babe," Aubrey told her softly, relaxing into the embrace.

"I don't want to fight with her, it feels like that's literally all we do," Chloe pouted.

"I know," Aubrey sighed, clearly exhausted by the situation "but it's not like we can just ignore it. I don't want her to keep getting thinner like this; it's not good for her."

"It sucks but I'd rather fight with her if it keeps her engaged in the relationship than just check out," Chloe admitted. Neither she nor Aubrey wanted to admit it, but they knew Beca's parents had to be responsible for a lot of her relationship issues.

Just as the couple was finishing up their conversation, Beca came out of their bedroom, fully dressed in her usual dark plaid button up and black jeans. She had a gym bag slung over her shoulder and her wet hair was strung lightly around her shoulders. The young girl's face was bare of makeup and her grim expression was apparent; her wrists were shaking slightly at her sides and her shoulders were slumped forward in defeat.

Chloe's expression was puzzled and confused, she felt oddly guilty for some reason and removed her arms from around her girlfriend's waist and shot her brunette a curious look. Aubrey, on the other hand, felt her heart break immediately. She knew exactly what Beca was doing and what was about to happen. It hurt the blonde even more when she realized it hadn't yet registered with Chloe had Beca was about to run.

"Babe I went in there to join but you locked the door," Chloe said softly, advancing toward her short girlfriend. "What's going on? Are you going to the gym or something?"

Beca finally looked up to the meet the eyes of her girlfriend and both girls internally gasped at the sheer pain and emptiness the dj held in her dark blue irises.

"Beca don't do this," Aubrey said suddenly, stepping away from Chloe and taking one of her Beca's shaking hands in her own.

"You don't understand, I literally just can't do this anymore. Everything's too much," The brunette started to explain, emotion coating her every syllable.

"You don't have to do anything alone," Aubrey rushed out, pulling the younger girl into her arms "Whatever you need, we're here. Chloe and I want to help you so much."

Chloe nodded eagerly, brushing the light tears from her eyes "Anything you need Beca, we can fix this," she agreed eagerly.

"You're part of the problem," Beca exploded, backing away from all the contact.

"I-I can't do it. There's so much c-conflict in every part of my life. The Bellas are at odds because world's is everything right now and I'm trying to do a good job running the booth and with the internship and in my relationship with you two because I love you both, s-so much but I can't do it anymore. I can't wait around for you guys to get tired of me. I can't wait for you guys to decide it's too hard or complicated or you're tired of lying to everyone as the wedding draws closer and you two start to actually picture the future because I'm pretty sure it won't have me in it. At least not the way I want to be," Beca sighed tiredly, "I just need space right now. I think I'm gonna go stay at the Bella's house. The girls said they kept the captain's room for in case something ever happened."

Chloe was completely shocked. She knew that things were bad between the three of them and the impending future with the marriage made everything complicated and stressful but the ginger never ever thought that Beca would move out. She had thought that after the first time Beca ever quit the Bellas and came back, she was done running. She was wrong.

Aubrey wasn't in shock; she had seen a reaction like this coming from their brunette girlfriend. Instead of shock, the blonde just felt crushing pain. Beca was giving up on her and Chloe; on them. She was really leaving.

While Aubrey knew it wasn't a break up, hell it wasn't a break at all but moving out was such a huge, horrible step in the wrong direction that it worried both the girls.

Part of her training in preparation to pass the bar, Aubrey had done an extensive rotation in the minor sector of the law internships and she had seen what kind of psychological damage being the child of ugly divorce could do to a kid's mental health; considering Beca never talked about her parents with her or Chloe and was instantly in a horrible mood whenever either girl questioned her about it, Aubrey could only assume it was ugly.

"Beca that isn't going to help anything. It's not going to solve any of our problems; it's just going to hurt us to not be all together. We hardly see you as it is, you moving out will just exacerbate our issues." Aubrey tried to reason, making sure to maintain distance from their girlfriend, who clearly was on the verge of a breakdown.

"This isn't working Aubrey and you know it. And honestly? You lost the right to tell me what was going to fix us the second you agreed to marry Chloe without even talking to me."

"Is it always going to come back to that? That my father is making me marry Chloe so young? God Beca, you said it was fine. I knew I shouldn't have believed you but I did because I thought we were finally passed all of your emotional barriers. I thought you finally let me and Chloe in and you would talk to us if you were upset but you're the same immature girl we met freshman year who's too scared to let anyone in her heart," Aubrey practically yelled, the misplaced frustration taking over her completely.

"Aubrey don't –" Chloe began to chastise her girlfriend only to be cut off but Beca

"No don't. Why pretend that you're anything but the self-involved tyrant you were three years ago too right? If this is what I get for trying…" Beca trailed off, imitating herself from three years ago.

With frustration and devastation rushing through the veins of all three girls, they stood at a stand-still, none of them sure what to say to each other. Beca, unable to take the awkwardness or impending vulnerability involved with one of them breaking down (which would of course lead to all of them breaking down) the brunette headed for the door, intending to give them all time to cool down.

"Beca please don't go," Chloe whimpered, tears now freely pouring out of her eyes as the severity of the situation finally seemed to hit her.

"I love you so much and Aubrey does too and we need you. Just please don't go," she begged, "Nothing is bigger than us. I know if we all just calm down we can sort this. Just don't run away."

Beca, with her hand on the doorknob, mentally fought with herself. She never wanted to be her father. Above all else, she never wanted to be the one who walked on the person (people in her case) that she loved and wanted a life with but she was so _fucking_ scared that she was going to get burned.

The brunette slowly turned around to meet the teary, and slightly angry, eyes of her girlfriend and kept one hand on the doorknob. She had to choose.

Go or stay

Walk out or tough it out

Space or arguments

Not for the first time in her life, Beca had no idea what to do.

 **Hi guys. So what is Beca going to do huh? Let me know what you think, I was going through all the reviews from the last chapter and they were beyond amazing. Seriously more than I could ask for, thank you all so so much. Please let me know what you think of this chapter and what direction you're hoping for it to go in.**


	7. Chapter 7

Beca closed the door gently, taking in a deep shaky breath. She turned back around to face the loves of her life, both watching her intently. The brunette noticed the look of pure relief of Chloe's face as she shut the door and the conflicting emotions taking up residence on Aubrey's.

"I don't want to leave like this," The brunette said quietly. She gently put down her gym bag with her clothes in it and her case of mixing equipment. She guardedly walked across the room and stood right in front of her two girlfriends, her heart stinging when Chloe indistinctly reach out to pull her in by her jacket but hesitate, noting the intensity of the moment.

"I love both you so, _so_ much but if we ever want a real chance, I have to go," Beca told them, the finality of her decision evident in her voice. The alt girl kept her eyes down, not wanting to see the pain that her words inflicted on her significant others.

"Beca no, you can't just go," Chloe sniffled, tears freely pouring down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry Beca, I'm so sorry for what I said, I-" Aubrey began to apologize, the gravity of Beca leaving finally hitting her.

Beca held up her hand to stop her girlfriend's apology "Bree we both said some stuff tonight okay? I'm not leaving because we had one fight. I just can't do this. I can't fight with the Bellas all day about worlds, and then fight with everyone at the internship trying to be the best and then come home and fight with my girlfriends. And then fight with myself all night, trying to get in through my head that this marriage won't ruin everything but I'm so _tired_ of fighting."

"Beca I'll do anything, we'll help you. You don't have to fight anything alone," Chloe pleaded, her voice borderline hysterical at this point. The ginger's fingers were shaking so hard that she had to wrap her arms around herself from breaking.

Beca's heart broke at hearing her ginger girlfriend so upset. Without another thought, Beca diminished the distance between them and pulled Chloe into her arms. The redhead rested her face in the crook of the shorter girl's neck as the DJ rubbed soothing patterns on her back.

"It's okay Chlo, everything is going to be okay," The brunette soothed, trying desperately to hide her own tremors.

"But y-you're l-leaving, nothing is o-okay," The ginger sobbed into Beca's plaid shirt, desperately clinging to its material and soothing 'Beca' smell.

"Chlo I'm just going to stay with the Bellas for a little bit. I'm still here, I'm still your girlfriend and I'll always be in love with you," Beca vowed, her voice strained with emotion.

Aubrey forced herself to choke down her own sobs at the immense heartbreak she felt herself and radiating off of both of her girlfriends. She felt like part of her soul was leaving but she tried to remind herself it wasn't a breakup, their girlfriend was just going to go stay with friends until they could resolve an issue, couples did this all the time.

Unable to restrain herself any longer, the blonde launched her onto Beca and Chloe, pulling them both into her long arms.

"Beca please don't go," Aubrey murmured

Beca sighed sadly, "If I thought there was any other way, I would. And I'm so scared that we might fall apart in a way that just can't be put back together."

Aubrey's heart sank even further in her chest as she realized that Beca was leaving and nothing she or Chloe could do or say would have any effect on that.

The girls all held each other close, trying to permanently imprint this moment on their brains along with how much they didn't ever want to lose each other. Finally, Beca pulled back, she met the cerulean blue eyes of her ginger girlfriend and Aubrey's baby blue and all she could think was that she'd never love anything more than these two girls, in spite of everything. She gently kissed both of their cheeks, turned on her heel, picked up her bags, and left without a second glance; she knew if she took one, her resolve would crumble and she'd stay with the blue-eyed angels.

Silence filled the apartment.

Chloe's soundless tears spilled onto their newly redone tile floors and Aubrey put her arm around the ginger's waist and pulled her close, as she'd done so many times before.

"It's going to be okay," the blonde comforted.

"How c-can you even say that?" Chloe bawled, harsh sobs wracking her delicate frame. "She left us!"

Aubrey sighed sadly, "I know babe, I know but we're going to get her back."

"You can't just call off our wedding Aubrey, you've worked your entire life for this," Chloe sniffled.

"Beca is everything to me. I know that there has to be some way to convince her that this wedding won't ruin us. But, in the end, if it comes down to my father's company or a chance to be with you and Beca forever, I don't even have to think about what I'd choose," The blonde replied honestly.

"Why couldn't you have just told Beca that?" Chloe questioned.

Aubrey smiled ruefully "As if she was even listening, Chlo?"

A watery smiled formed on Chloe's mouth at the familiarity she could still feel, even with part of her soul missing. Maybe there was a way out of all this after all.

* * *

Beca's shoulder drooped as she passed the other houses on row, almost at the Bellas house. Nerves settled in her stomach as she got closer to the mansion. What would she tell that, that she and Chloe and Aubrey were separated? They were still very much together. That they had a fight? She didn't want to divulge that much personal information to the Bellas and she knew that they'd never stop until they knew the true reason for the fights.

The captain fished through her bag until she found her key ring and located her key to the bellas mansion. Slowly, she pushed her way inside, trying to scope out where the girls were. It didn't take much searching, Beca found the young singer gathered around the television in the living room as Amy shouted at Kaitlyn for giving the wrong boys roses on the Bachelorette.

"I swear I would finish her like a cheesecake and take her place if my boyfriends wouldn't get so mad," The Aussie grumbled as Flo and Jessica exchanged the 'as if we don't all know you're exclusive with Bumper' look.

The DJ cleared her throat awkwardly

"Is it cool if I crash here?"

All of the Bellas were completely shocked and more than a dozen questions popped into their minds but with a warning glance from Stacie, they all managed to control their facial expressions.

"Duh, of course Becs," Stacie said, leaping up from the couch and throwing a casual arm around her much shorter friend.

"I just thought it would help us. I know I've been riding you guys pretty hard lately but it's just because I know we can win worlds if we all push ourselves. I think me staying here will make us like, closer or something," Beca explained, uncomfortable.

Fat Amy's eyes lit up "Shawty in the house! We are so getting you drunk bitch!"

All the other Bellas laughed and Cynthia-Rose smirked, knowing that Amy was nowhere near kidding.

"Come on, I'll even help you unpack," The self-proclaimed sex addict announced, pulling the alt girl up the stairs and into the master suite.

The Bellas downstairs exchanged looks of shock and confusion. Why wasn't Beca with Aubrey and Chloe? Did they break up? Was Beca going to be an even harsher captain now?

"ay dios mio," Flo muttered.

While all the girls had no idea what she was saying, they agreed.

As soon as the tall girl had Beca behind the closed doors of the master suit she turned on her quickly, "Okay Mitchell, spill," she ordered.

Beca cocked her head in feign confused "What do you mean Stac?"

But the dancer only rolled her eyes "Don't play dumb. I see through the bullshit, what happened?"

"Stacie come on, just let it go," The captain whined, beginning to unpack her mixing equipment.

"Beca come on you can't just move out of your girlfriends' apartment and expect us to not ask questions. I'm your best friend," Stacie prodded, slightly hurt at the brunette's unwillingness to open up to her.

"Stac, I'll talk when I can. I'm all talked out for the day," Beca promised, the exhaustion in her eyes was so clear it broken Stacie's heart. With a slightly nod of understand, the dancer slipped out of the room and descended to distract the Bellas.

Beca sighed, letting her head rest in her hands.

What the hell was she supposed to do now?

 **Wow I was overwhelmed and so shocked by the positive reviews this story got. Seriously all of you are so so amazing and it just makes me want to write more. Thank you guys so much! Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this chapter and where you'd like for things to go. Seriously you guys are beyond awesome. Love you all.**


	8. Chapter 8

The days that followed were more of a drag than anything Beca had ever dealt with before. It was such a shock to change her entire schedule so much, so instantly. And on an even more depressing note, Beca had found that pretty much all of her daily activities besides homework were directly related to, or reminded her of, her girlfriends. If she could even still call them that, of course.

Huffing out a sigh, the brunette made her way to the radio station to begin her shift. She was beyond exhausted; every time she tried to close her eyes and actually sleep, she was either woken by all the shenanigans of the Bellas, asked for help with choreography or hitting a note or reworking the set. And then the times when the alt girl was actually able to get some peace, her own mind was a battlefield. She found herself unable to concentrate on anything other than Chloe and Aubrey and how much she missed them. Anyone who knew Beca knew that she absolutely _despised_ admitting when she was wrong but what if maybe she made a mistake?

On account of the fact that sleep was currently considered such a delicacy, eating was utterly out of the question and as busy as the other girls could be, she knew that eventually they would begin to notice that she wasn't eating. The thought of food made the brunette sick. It gave her nothing but flash backs of all the time she'd spent twirling Chloe around in the kitchen to soft music or days when she and Aubrey would pretend like they knew how to cook and try to surprise their ginger girlfriend. What she put or didn't put in her body seemed like the only thing she had any control over these days anyway.

Just as Beca was settling into the booth and attempting to push all of her worries out of her mind for the duration of her shift, she heard the door creek open.

"Beca?" a soft, feminine voice called out, startling her. Immediately her eyes snapped up to meet a pair of clear blues. Beca swallowed hard as she attempted to maintain her composure. The younger girl would most definitely be lying if she tried to say that she hadn't missed Aubrey in the past few days. In the interest of full disclosure, Beca wasn't even sure she'd been able to take a full breath since walking out of her girlfriends a few nights ago so to see the blonde beauty standing in front of her, as if their relationship wasn't currently in ruins, was both a relief and a shock.

"Aubrey? Wh-hat are you doing here?" she stuttered, trying to mask her surprise.

The older girl was the picture of composure to the untrained eye, maybe. Beca could tell on first glance that recent insomnia was something the two of them had in common and upon further inspection, the brunette made note of the other girl's tense posture and firmly clasped hands.

"I came to see you," she said gently.

"And why would you do that?" Beca drawled, unable to stop the hurt from boiling in her veins like lava and forcing her to spit poison out of her mouth. "You and Red having trouble hitting our orgasm record with just the two of you?"

God Beca really hated herself sometimes. Aubrey had come all the way down here to visit her after _she_ left _them_ and she couldn't even contain her bitchiness long enough to let the other girl get a sentence out, the brunette mentally berated herself.

Aubrey visibly flinched at the crude and vindictive nature of her girlfriend's retort but she refused to give the girl what she wanted. Beca could throw all the insults she wanted at her, the blonde was determined not to let this deteriorate into a fight, no matter how much the smaller girl might want it to.

"When you left that night you told us that this wasn't the end. You said if we ever wanted a real chance then we needed to give you this space," Aubrey said, completely ignoring Beca's prior words. "I want that real chance. I want to work this out with you."

"Work what out Aubrey? There's nothing to work out!" she shouted. The younger girl wasn't used to losing control of her emotions so easily but she missed Aubrey so _fucking_ much and she wasn't letting herself be reasonable about this because she didn't want to get hurt again.

"Don't say that," she pleaded.

Aubrey could have sworn that she felt her heart begin to burst in her chest as she took in the dark purple marks under her eyes and the boniness of the other girl's face. The taller girl knew that in her exhausted state, there was little chance of earning reasonable reactions from her girlfriend, but that wasn't enough to deter her from trying.

"What is it then? You want to talk about which one of my girlfriend's maid of honor I'm going to be? Chloe has a sister so she's taken. So you then? I get to stand on the alter and watch up close while my girlfriends get married and start their lives without me? Thanks but I'll pass," she snarled, her exhaustion quickly transforming into rage.

Much to her credit, Aubrey still didn't take the bait and refused to fight. "This has nothing to do with that but it's all the more reason for you to come home or at the very least, talk to me. And Chloe. It's obvious to me that you have all these concerns that are eating you up inside and Beca I understand that, I do," the blonde closed the remaining distance until she was in the dj's personal space. "I want to work through these with you."

"And every time I think about your wedding with Chloe it makes me sick to my stomach," she spat. "So it seems like we're at an impasse, wouldn't you say?"

Aubrey was already shaking her head slowly, a sad smile creeping onto her lips. "You think I don't know what you're doing?"

She took a half step closer, allowing her hands to rest on the smaller girl's waist and ignoring the hurt she felt when her girlfriend flinched slightly.

"I know you so well Beca. We've been together for _years._ Do you honestly think I can't spot one of your defense mechanisms from a mile away?"

Aubrey's probing clear blue eyes were suddenly too much for the alt girl to handle and she broke their eye contact as a blush rushed up her cheeks at their proximity.

"No one is going to give up on you. It doesn't matter how hard you push," she vowed, now close enough to gently murmur the words right in Beca's ear. The current Bella's captain tried in vain to suppress the shudder that ran down her spine at the action. The younger girl was ashamed to admit that even in her exhausted, angry state; she was blinded by a rush of lust and affection for the girl standing in front of her.

"All I'm asking is-" Aubrey's words died in her mouth as Beca, unable to handle the tension anymore, closed the tiny gap between them and aggressively captured the blonde's mouth with her own. The law student's eyes remained opened as her brain tried to process the 180 Beca's behavior had just taken. The shorter girl could practically taste Aubrey's surprise at her actions but she didn't relent, instead taking the time to tug gently on her girlfriend's bottom lip and brush their chest's together, finally earning a reaction. A sharp intake of breath left the former captain's mouth and she wasted no time reasserting her dominant side and carefully shoving Beca against the wall inside the DJ booth, her hands getting tangled in brunette locks.

Beca tried to suppress the moans that had begun to creep out of her mouth, not wanting Aubrey to know just how fucking _good_ it felt to be able to be with her again. Not to mention the blonde was already cocky about her amazing kissing abilities and Beca certainly didn't want to boost her ego. The smaller girl was embarrassingly turned on by the simple kiss; she could feel herself become soaking wet as her hands moved gracefully toward the belt of Aubrey's white skinny jeans. She hurriedly undid the belt and zipper in a fluid movement without breaking the kiss. She pulled away to see a lust-filled haze in Aubrey's eyes and her swollen lips greeting her. A gentle smile escaped before Beca could contain it and she kissed the corner of the blonde's mouth with an uncharacteristic softness before returning to her task. The blonde reached out to start unbuttoning the brunette's shirt but her hand was slapped away.

Shocked, Aubrey opened her eyes and halted Beca's movements, demanding her attention. The brunette took a break from the dark love bite she was starting to leave on the other girl's clavicle.

"Two rules. No touching and be _quiet,_ " Beca hissed in Aubrey's ear. A shiver ran down her spine and she opened her mouth to protest, she'd missed touching Beca just as much as she'd missed Beca's touch.

The brunette cut her off, "Nope, those are the rules Bree. Now are you going to be a good girl?"

Aubrey's breath hitched. She'd only seen Beca like this a few times before in all the time that they had been together and she would be lying if she said that she wasn't unbelievably turned on right now.

Somewhere deep down, the older girl knew that this was not at all the way she and Beca should be going about solving their relationship issues, but this was the closest she had felt to the other girl in months. And with her stunning girlfriend practically purring in her ears and pawing at her clothes, Aubrey found herself unable to turn down such an impossibly enticing offer.

* * *

 **So fun fact, I am actually terrible at writing smut. Of course the next chapter will have the aftermath of this questionable choice, but I don't want to get anyone's hopes up for a legitimate sex scene. Maybe if you guys realllllly want me to try, I can see what I can do about angry/makeup/regular sex scenes as the story develops but for now I'll save myself the embarrassment. AS ALWAYS thank you so much for reading! Please leave a review and I'll always open to questions or concerns or suggestions.**


	9. Chapter 9

One set list, a few broken CDs and a round of orgasms later, both girls collapsed with a huff and relaxed against the hard floor of the semi cramped DJ booth.

"Wow," Aubrey breathed, still panting from exertion. "That was…different." The smaller girl barked out a laugh at the blonde's cautious appraisal, also still trying to catch her breath as she lightly traced patterns on her girlfriend's stomach.

"That was awesome," Beca smirked lightly. "You're awesome," she murmured against the bare skin of the other girl's neck. As what the brunette recognized as the final song in her current set play, their moment was broken. The younger girl began to untangle herself from their mess of intertwined limbs and search for her clothes. The air was heavier than it had been just moments ago; the smell of sex and sweat would have been stifling if Aubrey hadn't already been choking on her own unspoken words. The former Bellas captain took her cues from Beca and also began redressing.

Silence crept over the couple and Aubrey knew that she couldn't let it last or the intimacy they'd just created would vanish. Much to her surprise the snarky DJ beat her to it. "As fantastic and long overdue as that was," she smirked. "I have a feeling you didn't come here for mind-blowing sex."

"It wasn't," the blonde admitted, pulling her blouse back over her shoulders and buttoning it casually. "But it certainly wasn't an unwelcomed distraction." Aubrey watched carefully as Beca queued up the next set list she had planned wearing only her black, ripped skinny jeans and her bra, plaid shirt slung effortlessly over her right shoulder. Of course, the taller girl is always more than enthralled watching either of her girlfriends in various states of undress; she'd be lying if she claimed she wasn't seriously worried about the current prominence of Beca's spine. Her hip bones stuck out further than Aubrey remembered and her skinny jeans weren't quite hanging off of her but were noticeably loose.

Aubrey cleared her throat subtly, earning Beca's attention as she turned around to meet the other girl's accusatory blue eyes.

"I thought you said you were going to 'watch it this week'?" she asked icily. The brunette's eyebrows shot up in surprise and whether the movement was subconscious or not, Aubrey couldn't say, but the other girl began pulling the shirt over her shoulders and guiding her arms through.

"Watch what exactly, Bree?" she asked. Beca crossed the few feet separating them she'd unintentionally created while attending to her DJ equipment and wound her arms around the blonde's freshly clothed waist. Aubrey's demeanor didn't soften, regardless of how much the action made her want to melt.

"What exactly have you had to eat today?" Aubrey murmured into her short girlfriend's hair. If Beca wanted to use seduction to her advantage, then game on, she thought.

Understanding washed over the younger girl and instantly her body stiffened. "Seriously Bree I told you before, lay off. I can take care of myself."

"Just because you can take care of yourself doesn't mean that you are," the blonde quipped. She could tell that Beca was just moments away from trying to break out of her embrace so she held her tighter in the hopes that her touch would bring comfort to the other girl, even during their disagreement.

"Aubrey," Beca sighed, exasperated. "I am fine. I don't know how much more plainly I can say that. I've explained to you that I have a lot going on right now between the Bellas, my internship, graduation, and the most serious fight I've ever been in with my girlfriends happening all at once. Food isn't my number one priority, but it's seriously nothing you need to worry about. I have it under control."

Aubrey wasn't fooled by Beca's calm and logical explanation, no matter how convincing she could be sometimes; she knew her girlfriend better than that and if she let her get away with it now she might not get another chance soon to discuss this with her.

"Well if you're fine then there's no reason you'd object to a physical. Your last one was more than a year ago anyway so you're due for one," The blonde suggested faux-casually.

Beca scoffed, pulling her arms off of the blonde's waist and crossed them over her chest, "And have some stranger run their gross hands all over me? Pass."

Aubrey didn't miss a beat, "Except it wouldn't be a stranger with gross hands. Just Chloe."

The brunette visibly paled at the suggestion, "Bree, Chloe already has too much on her plate right now between trying to log as many hours as she can and studying for all her exams, there's no point in wasting her time so that she can tell me something I already know."

The former Bellas captain couldn't contain her eye roll at the other girl's deflection, "I'm very confident that Chloe would be more than happy to take time out of her day to see you. Besides, physicals take like, 20 minutes tops. Unless you think there will be a complication?" she asked, innocently.

It took a conscious effort for the smaller girl not to tense up at the idea of seeing 'Dr. Beale' mode on a concerned Chloe. She was fully aware of just how good her girlfriend was at sliding past her walls and lulling her into state where she'd do just about anything to make the other girl happy. But if she wanted to maintain her mantra that everything was fine with her health, it seemed best not to run away as that would only validate her girlfriends' concerns.

"Fine. Whatever. If you really need to bring Chloe into this for me to convince you that you're overreacting, I'll do it."

Aubrey smiled victoriously and dropped a peck of Beca's lips. "Thank you," she hummed against her lips.

Beca blushed lightly at the intimacy of their position and cleared her throat. "Anything for you Posen."

When Aubrey pulled back she glanced at her phone and saw that it was getting late and if she didn't get home soon Chloe would wonder where they were.

"Come over for dinner tonight, when your shift ends. Chloe can take a look at you then," the blonde suggested, pocketing her phone.

"Are you sure this isn't just a clever ploy to get me back in your bed?" Beca jested, lightly running her fingers down the length of Aubrey's spine. The taller girl couldn't suppress her shiver at the action.

"Please, as if I'd need a ploy to get you in my bed," she retorted.

The brunette laughed gently and the light, effortless sound was music to the blonde's ears. "You've got me there, Bree. Sounds good, I have another hour left in my shift and then I'll head over?"

"Sounds like a plan," Aubrey purred. She glanced around the booth to make sure she had everything with her before pulling the cerulean eyed girl in for one more kiss. She smiled as she turned away and was almost out the booth door when she was stopped.

"Bree?" Beca called, sounding nervous.

Aubrey turned around quickly; nervous wasn't an emotion Beca wore well or often.

"What's the matter?" She asked quickly.

"It's nothing," she assured her quickly. "I just…" she let out an impatient huff. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. For being such a bitch when you first came to see me. I said some stuff that was pretty out of line and I know that it wasn't cool of me to do that."

Aubrey swore she could feel her heart melting in her chest at her girlfriend's nervous apology. There was never a doubt in her mind that Beca was beyond worth fighting for, but every time she thought she couldn't fall any harder for the brunette, she was proven wrong.

"It's already forgotten about. I meant what I said, I'm not going anywhere and neither is Chloe. I just want you and I want you to be happy and whatever we need to do to get there, we'll do," she promised.

Beca was like, 80% sure she could feel what felt like the beginning of tears fill her eyes but before Aubrey could spot them, she darted across the booth and pulled the taller girl into an embrace.

"I love you, Bree. So much," she mumbled into her hair.

"I love you too Becs."

And with one final goodbye kiss, Aubrey left the booth and began the drive home to their apartment so she could warn Chloe of her impending appointment.

* * *

Dinner went off without a hitch. Chloe had made spaghetti since she'd only had a half day at the hospital and it was ready by the time Beca returned from her shift. The girls' dinner was filled with effortless conversation about their respective days and even some good-natured jabs at each other. Aubrey had taken the liberty of filling Chloe in on her visit to the radio station earlier and the red head would be lying if she said she wasn't a little jealous that she couldn't have been an active participate. That jealousy was well overshadowed by the happiness she felt at the thought of her girlfriends getting along and the hope that filled her that maybe there was a way for them to get through this and have their relationship even stronger than before all this.

"So Becs," Chloe began casually as they started to clear their dinner plates from the table. "Aubrey tells me you wanted to get a physical in before worlds?"

The brunette rolled her eyes and shot a glare towards her blonde girlfriend. "Is that what she said?" she asked sarcastically.

"Don't be grumpy Mitchell," Aubrey teased; she steadied one arm on Beca's waist as she planted a kiss on the corner of her lips as she passed her to get the dishes she held in her other arm over to the sink.

"Whatever. Yeah if it'll get you and Bree off my case then fine," she acquiesced.

"That's great!" Chloe beamed, drying her hands on a towel as she finished washing the last dish. "Do you want to get changed before we go or are you good like that?"

"Wait, go?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"To the hospital," Aubrey said slowly, not taking her eyes off of Beca.

"And why exactly do I need to go to the hospital if the doctor is already in my apartment?" Beca sassed.

Chloe was elated that Beca had referred to this apartment as her own; that meant that, at least subconsciously, the brunette must still think of it at her home. The ginger hoped that sooner rather than later their girlfriend would realize that she was better off here them than shacking up at the Bellas' house.

Aubrey, on the other hand, was too engrossed in their discussion to notice the slip. "And with what medical equipment, exactly, are we supposed to check you over?"

"Whoa, we?" Beca asked. "Did you go to medical school while I was at work?"

Aubrey ignored her girlfriend's sarcasm. "Is it so crazy that I want to help because I'm concerned about you?"

"You can't be serious," the brunette groaned. She crossed her arms defensively and stood up straighter. Chloe, sensing that their current situation was about to escalate, stepped in to intervene.

"Okay, here's what's going to happen. Beca, go get your stuff together and get in my car because we're doing this at the hospital. I'm good, but I'm not take-your-blood-pressure-without-a-machine- good. Aubrey, sit down and watch something or catch up on your paperwork. Read a book, go for a run, whatever you want because you're not coming." The ginger's subtle authority left no room for argument.

"Whatever," Beca scoffed, pulling her jacket over her shoulders and taking off towards the parking lot.

When they heard the front door slam indicating that their smallest girlfriend was out of earshot, the blonde rounded on her girlfriend, fully prepared to let her know exactly how upset she was with her decision but Chloe was ready for it.

"Listen to me," she pleaded, taking the taller girl's face gently between her hands. "I know how much you want to be there. I know that you're worried. But as much as Beca loves you and I love you, I think this would go more smoothly without you there. You don't always handle stressful situations like this well and Beca is going to feed off of your nervous energy and then I'll never be able to get her to relax enough to open up to me."

"I get that Chlo, I do, but I've been so worried about her. I need to know what's happening and how serious this is," she reasoned.

Chloe nodded, stroking the older girl's cheek with her thumb. "I know baby. I promise I'll tell you in excruciating detail everything that I find out. But I don't want Becs to feel like we're ganging up on her again. We've been pretty much 0 and 4 with our 'us vs. her' conversations since we had lunch with your Dad."

Aubrey knows that Chloe is right. She knows; feels it in her bones that this is the best thing for Beca. For their relationship, even. But that doesn't make it hurt any less that the most conducive environment for Beca to open up is the one without her.

 **My sincerest apologies to those who wanted smut, I really tried a few times but it didn't seem very authentic so I'll keep at it and who knows, maybe I'll get it to the point where it's not too embarrassing to publish. I know this chapter was super Aubrey/Beca heavy and the last one was too but I felt like I needed to show that Aubrey and Beca, for all that they argue, are very much in love. They aren't just together because they both want Chloe; they have a relationship outside of her that is very important to both of them. That said, the next chapter is going to be very Chloe/Beca, as you can see by how I left things. The next chapter might be a little fluffy (Or smutty who knows idk) but be prepared because some major drama is about to hit our girls.**

 **I have a pretty rough plan for how I intend for this story to play out but anything could happen. So if there's something you'd really like to see or see more of (except smut) let me know and I'll see if I can work it in.**

Until next time…


	10. Chapter 10

Beca huffed indignantly from the passenger side door of Chloe's car. In her stubborn haze, she'd forgotten to ask for the keys before she stormed out and was now currently stuck in their somewhat sketchy parking garage while she waited for her girlfriend to come join her. The brunette tapped out of light drumming pattern on the top of the car to distract herself; she was worried if she let her mind settle, it would go back over the conversation she'd just had with her girls and she'd be forced to confront the fact that she had undoubtedly just hurt the blonde's feelings.

Footsteps approaching snapped the brunette out of her thoughts.

"You ready to go Becs?"Chloe asked lightly, blinding Beca with her smile.

Beca tried to pretend she wasn't a complete sucker for the Beale charm and rolled her eyes. "The sooner we get this over with the better."

"That's the spirit!"

The car ride was mostly silent, much to Beca's surprise. Usually the med student was singing along to the radio or chatting about her day/asking Beca about hers; at the very least she was humming some catchy tune. It was almost unnerving to the DJ to hear her girlfriend so silent. Whatever she was thinking about was obviously pretty heavy.

"What's going on up there Beale?" she questioned playfully.

The redhead shot her a rueful smile and flashed her hypnotizing eyes in her direction. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

"No," Beca groaned, covering her face lightly with her hands. "I'm sick of talking about me. I want to know what you're thinking."

"I think we should wait and talk about this once we get there," she answered slowly.

A panic stricken look passed through Beca's eyes for just a moment before she was able to compose herself. Something about Chloe's cryptic answer and placating tone clued Beca in that fooling her girlfriend might not be as simple as she once thought. Of course, the senior knew that Aubrey was more than onto her secret and it was only a matter of time and hopefully, a series of good distractions, before she confirmed her suspicions. But she was surprised to see that Chloe had been watching her nearly just as carefully and was now taking this a lot more seriously than she's thought.

The brunette felt like she was gulping down rocks at the prospect of disappointing Chloe.

"Why? What can't we talk about in the car?" she questioned, her voice betraying her nerves by going up a few octaves.

The doctor-to-be took her eyes off the road and stared and Beca like she'd grown three heads.

"Why are you so freaked out Becs? I'm thinking about your health and I figured we should wait until we're in front of medical equipment so there isn't anything to argue about," Chloe explained slowly.

The stormy eyed girl felt all the muscles that had basically spasmed with tension just moments ago release and allow her to breathe again.

"Oh okay," Beca nodded dumbly.

"What did you think I was going to say?" Chloe prodded softly. Part of her heart broke that her girlfriend was so on edge about any serious conversations. The older girl knew that Beca had every right to be, considering all of their more serious ones lately had revolved around the bomb she and Aubrey had dropped in reference to their impending marriage. Every fight that they'd had since then could be traced back to that Tuesday night and the vast majority of them had been ugly; possibly some of the worst that the three girls had ever had in their relationship. Honestly this time of conflict just reminded the former Bella of her senior year, when Aubrey and Beca had been fighting incessantly over everything and nothing.

"I don't know," the brunette muttered.

Chloe hummed in reply. She knew full well that Beca was closing up on her once again but decided against pushing in light of the potentially devastating reaction she could protract from the DJ.

The remainder of the car ride passed in silence. The cool night air whipped through Chloe's long, gorgeous red hair and Beca was absolutely entranced by her girlfriend's effortless beauty. When they pulled up in front of the hospital, the pair exited the car swiftly and still silently. The shorter girl knew her way around vaguely from the times she'd brought the redhead lunch.

A scowl etched itself onto the senior's face as she recalled her first time visiting Chloe while she was working.

 _The brunette excitedly hopped out of Aubrey's expensive Range Rover after giving her a kiss on the lips. The blonde had laughed at her eagerness and followed her out of the car, promising that they would leave in exactly half an hour so Beca wouldn't be late for her afternoon class._

 _At the start of the fall semester, Chloe had been offered a paid job at the hospital after interning at the sister-hospital just off of Barden University's campus for 2 and a half years. This was almost unheard of for a med student; the majority of the paid staff at the larger and more official hospital had been students and then long-term interns at the teaching campus hospital for at least 4 or 5 years while they figured out their specialties._

 _Both Beca and Aubrey were incredibly proud of their girlfriend and wanted to make sure that she knew that. On her very first day of work, Aubrey had driven over to the hospital and delivered Chloe her lunch. Many of the nurses, doctors, and fellow med students had seen the sweet gesture and gushed over Chloe's girlfriend. At the time, the blonde and redhead had thought nothing of it; they were after all, girlfriends._

" _You two make an absolutely adorable couple!" One of the nurses squealed._

" _Thank you," Chloe laughed lightly, tightening her grip on the blonde as she walked her out._

" _I think they might like me even more than you, Chloe," the blonde had teased._

" _Oh shut up," Chloe countered, playfully shoving the blonde. "I think they're all just excited about knowing an up and coming lawyer in case they get hit with a malpractice suit any time soon."_

 _Aubrey laughed out loud and had to cover her mouth with her free hand when on-lookers began to stare. "You're probably right. I should've said I was a garbage woman or an assassin for hire."_

 _When the young couple had finally kissed goodbye and Chloe returned to her floor, she was pulled aside almost immediately by her attending and brought on to assist with a new case. Chloe had been doing her rotation in pediatrics at the time._

 _Her attending, Dr. Burkes, had handed her the case file and brought her up to speed on their current situation. Their patient was a teenage boy who had broken his ankle while racing dirt bikes with a few of his friends. In a typical 16 year old boy fashion, when he'd fallen off the bike and hurt himself, he wanted to appear tough and walked off the injury. When he'd gone home and noticed his ankle was turning purple and the spare crutches he'd been using (his older sister had sprained her ankle last year and their parents insisted that she use the crutches) weren't helping. He went to find his parents and they took him to the hospital where Dr. Burkes had admitted them right away and been assigned his case._

 _When the two doctors entered the room, the boy's parents had seemingly gone to get a drink or something from the cafeteria and the boy was alone in the room with another handsome teenager._

 _Their patient, Nathan Baker, was sitting up in his hospital bed with his paper gown on. Next to him on the bed was another very cute and presumably 16 year old boy with blondish hair and bright green eyes. He reminded Chloe of Aubrey and a grin tugged itself onto her lips._

 _Dr. Burkes cleared his throat and the blonde boy jumped at the sudden noise; he pulled his arm away from the other boy's waist and he took a seat in the chair next to the bed, cheeks flush with embarrassment._

 _Nathan pouted at his companion and the boy smiled and laced their fingers together._

 _Dr. Burkes introduced Chloe and gestured for her to present the case._

" _Nathan Baker, 16, was riding his dirt bike around with his friends. Sustained a hairline fracture to his left tibia…"_

 _As they discussed their treatment plan, the patient's boyfriend stayed at his side their entire time, pausing to ask questions every once in a while. It was clear that the two boys were very much in love._

 _Flash forward to two days later, the day of the surgery. Things had gone well, they managed to repair the small break with no complications and the boy was to make a full recovery. When Dr. Burkes had been informed that the boy was awake, he and Chloe finished their rounds and returned to his room for a final check up._

 _As the mentor and his mentee entered the room, they found their patient in an intense lip lock with another brunette boy. Nathan was smiling into the kiss and the brunette was handling him with extreme care. Chloe looked around the room and saw the blonde boy that had been cuddling her patient just a few days ago, who she had assumed was his boyfriend, sitting in the chair next to the bed, grinning at the boys and holding a book in his other hand._

 _The slam of the door caught the attention of all three boys and Chloe; her mentor appeared to be fuming. The brunette boy seemed to sense the tension in the room and slowly slid off the bed and took a seat in the furthest chair from the bed in the corner. The blonde boy cast the other boy a concerned look and the other boy caught his eye and nodded, as if to reassure him._

 _Understanding passed through Chloe's eyes. These boys were no different that her, Beca, and Aubrey. Well, except that it was two brunettes and a blonde as opposed to their blonde, brunette, and redhead. The young med student smiled widely at the boys as if to mentally offer her support. She was impressed that they'd managed to get into such a seemingly happy three person relationship at 16. She and her girlfriends had had their fair share of communication issues and other tribulations at 18 and 21/22._

 _It wasn't until Chloe heard the graying man speak that she realized he was both angry and disgusted. He hastily informed their patient that the surgery had been a success and that he'd make a full recovery. Nothing he said could be misconstrued as unprofessional but Chloe knew that something had to be seriously wrong; she'd never seen her attending be so short with someone before, not even his most awful patients. She made note of the way 'Nathan' had become 'Mr. Baker'_

 _As soon as they left the room and the ginger was alone with her mentor, she opened her mouth to ask what was wrong but the question soon became redundant._

" _God that's disgusting," he spat._

" _People aren't meant to live like that," he continued, clearly not seeing the shock on Chloe's face._

 _When she recovered, she countered, "Like what? Gay?"_

 _He looked over and caught his student's harsh gaze. "I couldn't care less if he's gay or not Chloe, you know that."_

" _Then what…?" she trailed, off, puzzled._

" _It's that….that…"relationship,'" he scoffed in disgust. "It's completely unnatural to have three people together like that. Humans are naturally monogamous. And there's no way it's anything real. It's just an excuse to be able to cheat on your partner._

 _Chloe felt all the anger that had been building up inside her seep out at once and it was replaced by a tidal wave of devastation and nausea. When the singer had interned for Barden's near campus sister hospital, people surely suspected her of dating both Aubrey and Beca. They'd never told anyone officially for fear of reactions exactly like the ones those boys were currently receiving but she had never tried to actively hide her relationship._

 _At the time, Chloe had half-heartedly nodded in agreement with her mentor but emotionally she felt numb. She'd gone home and sobbed to her blonde girlfriend about the interaction. Aubrey had comforted her until she fell asleep. Of course the redhead had planned on telling both her girlfriends about the interaction but she was unable to as Beca had texted them that someone had called in sick at the radio station and she had to stay and cover._

 _Life went on and when Chloe was home with her girls she forgot all about the intolerance she'd witnessed at work. It was weeks later when Beca begged Aubrey to take her to visit Chloe so she could bring her hardworking girlfriend lunch that everything came rushing back._

 _Usually, the DJ had class every day for an hour that overlapped Chloe's designated lunch time but today she'd woken to an email from the professor canceling class, citing a personal emergency. The first thought that popped into Beca's mind was that she could finally spend her girlfriend's lunch hour with her._

 _Of course the future lawyer, unable to deny Beca anything, had taken a long lunch at the office, picked up her girlfriend and their take out for 3, and drove them both to Chloe's hospital. So much time had passed that Aubrey too had forgotten about the ginger's interaction with her ignorant boss and thought nothing of holding Beca's hand as they walked through the lobby together and slipped into the elevator._

 _Aubrey texted Chloe saying that she had a surprise for her and requested she meet her by the nurse's station just in front of the cafeteria. The singer grinned at her blonde girlfriend's thoughtfulness and raced over to meet her. Her eyes lit up when she saw not one, but both of her girlfriends standing their waiting for her with food. All of her favorite things in one place. Just as she was about to race over and tackle them both in a hug, her attention was diverted by the booming voice of her mentor._

" _Chloe!" he called. "A word?"_

 _She acquiesced and trotted over to him._

" _What's up Dr. B?" she asked lightly._

 _Although her opinion of her mentor was irrevocably changed when she saw a new side of him in Nathan Baker's room, Chloe had learned to bury those feelings of distaste and focus on the fact that Dr. Burkes was an excellent teacher with an impressive skill set and a soft spot for her._

" _Why is your girlfriend holding hands with that brunette girl?" he asked suspiciously._

 _Chloe's eyebrows furrowed in confusion but as she turned to follow his line of sight, she saw what he meant._

 _Aubrey and Beca were holding hands._

 _Because they were girlfriends._

 _Her girlfriends and each other's._

 _A wave of panic flashed over Chloe._

" _Ohhh that?" she squeaked, trying to keep the hysteria out of her voice. "They're cousins!" she forced laughter after her attempt to play if off as if it were no big deal._

 _Her mentor looked visibly relieved and he too laughed. "Thank God, I was afraid I was going to have to be the bearer of bad news and tell you your girlfriend was a cheater," he joked._

 _The red head forced more breezy laughter from her mouth, "It's a common mistake since they have different hair but they actually look pretty similar."_

 _That was a total lie. No one with eyes would ever believe that Aubrey and Beca were related but Chloe was depending on the fact that they were far enough away from herself and Dr. Burkes that the aging man wouldn't be able to see well enough to notice._

" _You better hold on to that girl of yours Chloe," he said cheerfully. "She's a good one, and smart too!"_

" _I plan to, Dr. B."_

" _Alright Miss Beale, enjoy your lunch and tell Aubrey I said Hello."_

 _And with that, he left his mentee in the hallway and he returned to his office, shutting the door behind him._

 _Meanwhile, Beca was beyond confused. Aubrey had talked about meeting Chloe's attending so why hadn't her girlfriend introduced her?_

 _While they were still talking, the Dj had made a move to walk over and join them but Aubrey pulled her back with their intertwined hands and shook her head subtly._

 _Luckily the couple didn't have to wait long and Chloe finished up her conversation and joined them._

" _Hey Chlo! Was that-?" Beca began._

" _Let's go to that Italian place across the street," Chloe cut her off. The words were phrased like a suggestion but the tension in her spine let Beca know that it was not. As the brunette looked for clues as to what was going on she saw her girlfriends exchange a look as the redhead's light blue eyes had flickered down to their intertwined hands. Aubrey seemed to understand whatever Chloe was trying to communicate and let go of hers right away._

" _But we brought lunch to you, Chlo?" Beca said, gesturing to the bag of food in her hand._

" _Not here," she answered simply._

 _The trio walked over the elevator and just as Beca was about to open her mouth to question the girls on their bizarre behavior, a group of laughing nurses joined._

 _The walk back to the car felt like years. When they finally reached Aubrey's SUV, the blonde slipped into the driver's seat and Chloe selected the passenger's, leaving the smallest girl to slide into the back._

 _After about 30 seconds of silence, Beca couldn't stand it anymore. "Does one of you want to tell me what the fuck is going on?"_

 _Both girls looked torn as they thought of a way to explain their reactions._

" _Becs do you remember at the start of the year, when that new girl called out of work at the radio station and since Luke left you in charge, you had to cover for her?" Chloe asked, making sure to keep her voice light._

" _Yeah," Beca nodded slowly, gesturing for the other girl to go on._

" _That was only my second week working here and I had been assigned a case with Dr. B a few days prior to that. The case was about this boy who thought he sprained his ankle but really it was a hairline fracture to his left-,"_

" _I don't see how that explains why we're sitting in this car instead of having lunch in the cafeteria," Beca interrupted._

" _Beca," Aubrey warned._

 _Chloe nodded, "I'm getting to that. When we first met the patient he was cuddling on the hospital bed with, we assumed, his boyfriend. When we finished his surgery and returned to his room for a post-op examination and to tell him he could leave, he was making out with a different guy."_

" _So your patient cheated on his boyfriend and now we can't eat lunch with you?"_

 _Tears had started to form in Chloe's sky blue eyes as she worked up the courage to tell Beca the impossible conclusion to the story._

" _My patient wasn't cheating, he had two boyfriends. And based on how the other two boys looked at each other, I would guess that they were all three together like we're all three together," she explained, gesturing to the three of them._

" _I went to visit Chloe for lunch the day she was assigned to the case," Aubrey stepped in to assist her struggling girlfriend. "I met a couple nurses and on my way out, Chloe's attending. He saw us holding hands and I told him I was Chloe's girlfriend."_

 _Beca nodded in understanding, unphased by this. The three girls knew that it wasn't widely believed that it was possible for them to be in a committed, serious, polyamorous relationship. Because of this it wasn't uncommon for Chloe to introduce Aubrey has her girlfriend and vice versa._

" _Long story short, Dr. B flipped and spent the next few minutes telling me how disgusting and wrong it was for three people to be together like that. And he already met Aubrey as my girlfriend so I guess when I saw you guys there holding hands like that…"_

" _You freaked out," Beca finished. "It's okay Chlo; it's not your fault that your boss is an ignorant douchebag."_

" _Beca," Aubrey admonished, unable to suppress the grin growing on her face._

" _What? He is!" Beca reasoned._

" _He pulled me aside because he wanted to know why you two were holding hands," Chloe explained. "I told him you two were cousins."_

 _Aubrey laughed, "Cousins? That's the best you could do?"_

" _I couldn't think of anything else! And his eyesight isn't great from far away so I figured he wouldn't notice," Chloe chuckled along._

 _Beca, however, couldn't bring herself to laugh._

 _Cousins?_

 _The very thought made her sick. Was it always going to be this way? Due to the fact that Aubrey and Chloe had been dating before Beca came into the picture, most people outside their inner circle knew them as a couple and Beca as their best friend and former acapella teammate. Normally, the brunette didn't think twice about it because she knew that truth and that was enough for her. But she was starting to wonder, would it always be?_

The brunette was pulled out of her thoughts by the automatic doors to the hospital sliding open. Immediately her senses were overwhelmed by the bright florescent lighting and she became even more concerned for this examination. That light was certainly not going to help her; if anything it threatened to expose her poor eating habits and lack of sleep even faster than expected. The building was by no means empty but it was exactly crowded either. Chloe and Beca made their way to the nurses' station. Beca stayed by the redhead's side but wasn't listening as she heard her girlfriend whisper something to the nurses and then wink at the older woman. The nurse nodded and returned the smile. Chloe's arm rose to platonically guide Beca into an exam room.

"What did you say to her?" Beca inquired, trying to stall.

"I told her that you were a close friend and you needed an emergency physical so you could try out for your high school volleyball team tomorrow," she explained.

Beca snorted, "Seriously?"

"Becs, you're tiny. Anyone would believe you were a high schooler," she countered.

The brunette rolled her eyes and grumbled under her breath as Chloe turned on the machines, allowing them to warm up. The med student shut the blinds, allowing the couple to have their privacy and locking the door behind them.

"Alright Becs, take it off," Chloe instructed. Every part of her wanted to loosen the tense atmosphere and make jokes about stripping or sex or God, anything but she didn't want to retract from the seriousness of Beca's health.

"You're seriously doing this like, as an official check up Chlo?" She whined. A part of Beca thought she could possible still talk her way out of this.

"Are you sure there isn't another version of tonight you'd prefer instead?" the DJ murmured; she stepped closer to her girlfriend, entering her personal space and rested her hands on the redhead's hips.

Chloe's breath hitched as her body leaned into Beca's touch. But before her judgment could get too clouded, she stepped back and breathed in air that wasn't Beca's irresistible perfume and remembered what they were doing here.

"Nice try, strip and then hop on the scale," she ordered again.

Beca sighed but seeing no way out of it, she unzipped her jacket and slid it off slowly. Not wanting to make an uncomfortable situation harder, Chloe turned around and pretended to fiddle with some of the equipment that was already ready. The senior noticed this and smiled despite herself at Chloe's attempt to give her privacy. It took her multiple tries to unbutton her jeans because her fingers couldn't keep still. Her gaze was locked on the scale, an object that had once been a dear friend to her and a measure of her control, was now about to betray her. The cerulean-eyed girl knew as soon as she stepped up on the scale, everything would have to change.

When the older girl turned around, she fought hard to maintain her composure. Beca was standing there in just her underwear and a black lacy bra. The gaze of both girls was fixed on the doctor's scale in front of them. A number stared back at them, mocking them.

92.

Beca weighed 92 pounds.

She was practically the size of a toddler. From her medical studies, Chloe knew that the average healthy weight of a 5'2 girl was 104 to 135 lbs. As soon as the number appeared, Beca had stepped down. She was currently folding her jeans, t shirt, and jacket into a pile on the examination table. Upon further inspection, Chloe noticed she was trembling.

Her heart snapped in two.

"Oh Becs," she cooed quietly. She pulled the girl into a hug and guided the brunette so her chin was resting on her shoulder. Silent sobs were wracking the brunette's small frame and Chloe fought her on own tears as her arms traced Beca's rib bones from the back and she felt the other girl's hips far too prominently.

"I'm gonna help you. We're gonna fixed this," Chloe promised her girlfriend quietly. She continued to rub soothing circles on her back in the hopes that the other girl would calm down soon.

 **Hi. So I totally wasn't planning on doing such an elaborate flash back but idk I'm taking calculus this summer and when I finished that I just really needed a creative outlet and this happened. I've already started the next chapter so I'm hoping to have that up in about a week or so. I go back to school in 2 weeks so updates might take a little more time then because as lots of you know, college is really hectic.**

 **Sorry for any and all grammar errors, I don't have a beta but I read through it a couple times hoping to catch them. BUT I'm nowhere near perfect so I'm sure there's some in there.**

 **I know that this was a little bit different from the kind of chapters that I normally do so please let me know what you thought!**

 **Seriously you guys are amazing and so many of your reviews are so sweet and thorough it makes my day every time.**


	11. Chapter 11

Although the scale had proved what she'd come to see, the young med student still wanted to make good on her promise and check the Mitchell's blood pressure and cholesterol, just to be safe.

As Chloe finished up her last tests, Beca was silent in her seat. As soon as the ginger removed the blood pressure cuff from her arm she pulled her jacket back on over her t shirt. Chloe had yet to say a word after she'd comforted the senior during her slight break down. Beca could tell that it was because her girlfriend didn't know what to say. Both the two of them and Aubrey had known for a little while now that she had some unhealthy eating habits but none of them really knew the extent that the youngest girl had taken it to.

"Are we done?" Beca prodded anxiously.

"Becs…we have to talk about this," Chloe responded softly. She wanted to reach out and offer the other girl some type of physical comfort but sensing the short girl's unease, she refrained.

"Bree," Beca said simply.

"I brought you here for this because you and Aubrey can't talk about this without fighting," Chloe countered. "If you want to have this conversation with her, I'm more than happy to do that but you're not using her as an excuse to get out of telling me why this is happening."

"I think it's pretty straightforward why this is happening, Chlo," she snapped.

The redhead ignored the sass and shook her head, "Not to me."

It was times like this when Beca was almost frustrated that Chloe and Aubrey knew her so well. The previous day when she and Aubrey had fought at the station, she said everything she could to earn a rise out of the blonde. During her freshman year when all the girls were in the Bellas together, it hadn't taken much to instigate an argument with Aubrey. Chloe had always been tough to pick a fight with and that certainly hadn't changed but at the very least she used to be able to bait Aubrey into a fight over almost nothing. A few careless words or a misplaced glare was all she needed to evoke a reaction. It seemed that years of dating the stubborn DJ had given both girls time to hone their patience skills and now it was next to impossible to get them to meet her fire with fire of their own.

"I have no control Chloe," she huffed. "I never have. I didn't get a say when my parents divorced, I didn't get a say when my Dad left. I can barely get the Bellas to show up to practice on time."

Chloe's eyes swam with tears. How had she been in a relationship with Beca for years and somehow never realized how much she was dealing with? Of course, Beca had only begun starving herself as of late; she'd done it in high school when her parents split up but she'd long since recovered from the habit and it was just now rearing it's head again.

"I don't have any control over whatever the fuck is going on with you and Aubrey's marriage no matter how much the two of you like to pretend that I do."

"Beca that's not true. Aubrey and I both told you that we won't do this unless you were alright with it. And you said you were and honestly, I should've known better than to believe you," Chloe admitted. "But Aubrey and I really thought that we'd been together long enough that you'd come to us if you were scared or uncomfortable."

"We've already danced this one out Chlo," Beca said quietly. "I will not be the person responsible for keeping Aubrey from the thing she's worked her entire life for. It's inconvenient sure, but you know what I realized?"

Chloe tilted her head to the side as if to say 'go on.'

"This was going to happen sooner or later. Aubrey's dad may have accelerated the timeline a little bit but eventually one of the three of us was going to seriously start thinking about marriage. That's what I realized Chloe. This was inevitable," she finished.

"None of us thought Mr. Posen would force Aubrey to get married at 25 but you're right. Eventually one of us would've gotten stuck on the idea of being married," Chloe agreed.

A pregnant pause fell over the couple as they both absorbed what had been said.

"Beca I understand that you're under a lot of pressure right now. I really do," Chloe began. "But you can't starve yourself just to feel in control. There are other ways, healthy ways, to do it."

Beca's deep navy eyes met Chloe's for the first time since she'd stepped off the scale.

"Yeah?"

Chloe smiled at the child-like innocence Beca pretended she didn't possess.

"Yeah Becs. Aubrey is a _huge_ control freak. You've known that since before we were all together and you still fell for her anyway. Everyone has to cope somehow. Aubrey works out and goes for runs when she's overwhelmed. I sing and spend time in the water; showers or pools or lakes, whatever I can get. I'm sorry that music doesn't offer that same feeling for you but we can find something that does," Chloe promised.

"And what if there's nothing that does?" she challenged. "What if I'm just defective and it's never going to get better?"

"Well, have you ever had problems like this before?" Chloe asked softly.

An embarrassed blush burned Beca's cheeks. She had really hoped that neither of her girlfriends would ask her that because lying was clearly not the way to go but she also had no interest in admitting to her struggles with food from high school.

"Becs?" she prodded gently. The look on her brunette girlfriend's face was honestly enough of an answer for her but she was beyond shocked that in the three years they'd been dating, it never occurred to Beca that she should share something like that with them. How could her girlfriend, who had come so far emotionally over the past few years, not be ready or willing to disclose this part of her past when she and Aubrey had been nothing but candid about their own histories?

"I don't…" she sighed sadly, pulling at the sleeves of her jacket. "I really don't want to get into it."

"Beca I don't want to push you," Chloe said slowly, reaching out to trace her hand along her girlfriend's arm. "But 'I don't want to talk about it' can't be your answer to everything or else this is never going to work."

"If I tell you, can you promise me it won't leave this room?"

The redhead hesitated. She wasn't sure if it was implied that they would relay at least a general version of this conversation to their blonde girlfriend or if Beca was asking her to genuinely keep this between the two of them and never clue the other girl in. Of course there were many things and experiences between Beca and Chloe, Chloe and Aubrey, and Beca and Aubrey that were special to each pair as well as all three of them together but they'd never deliberately kept something this important from anyone before. As much as Chloe wanted to prompt Beca to specify, she didn't want to do anything to dissuade the other girl from opening up which she appeared to be on the verge of doing.

"If that's what you want," she answered, finally.

Beca let out a sigh of relief and when the ginger saw the smaller girl's shoulder visibly deflate as she calmed, she knew she'd said the right thing.

"It's not much of a story," Beca offered as she shuffled awkwardly back into sitting position on top of her standard-issue paper that coated her examination bed. Taking her cues from the alternative girl, Chloe sat beside her and nodded encouragingly.

"It's pretty much exactly what you expect. When my parents announced that they were splitting, I was kind of happy about it. Their arguments had turned from screaming matches to throwing things at the wall or breaking whatever was within arm's reach and I figured that meant they were both ready to call time of death on the marriage."

Chloe slipped her arm around the younger girl's waist and absently began rubbing soothing circles just above her hip bone. The brunette shivered at the sensation.

"I thought when they weren't stuck in their dead end marriage anymore, they'd both be happier but I was very, very wrong. I spent weekdays with my mom in our old house until they could sell it and weekends with my Dad. Those lasted all of 3 weeks before he cut himself loose and ran out on us to start over. But those 3 weeks were so miserable; all my parents ever did was complain about the other to me," she explained. Her dark blue eyes remained downcast, as if she was embarrassed to meet her girlfriend's piercing gaze.

"I uh, I started failing my classes," Beca continued, glancing nervously at Chloe to gage her reaction. "To the point where the school called my Mom to have her come in. She set up the meeting over the phone…..but she never showed."

"Oh Beca," Chloe exhaled quietly. She squeezed her hips gently, as if to keep the brunette in the moment with her.

"I guess I figured if failing school wasn't enough to get my parents to notice to me, nothing would be. I think a very small part of me wondered if maybe I were better, funnier, skinner, more popular. Then maybe my parents would've given a shit. And I guess those thoughts kind of just festered."

"When did you stop?" Chloe asked softly.

"I wasn't exactly the prom queen of my high school but I had a pretty good group of friends that I'd known since like, 4th grade. A couple of them noticed something was up. I blew them off until a neighbor let it slip that my parents were separated and then basically overnight the whole school knew. It wasn't hard for them to put it together after that. Long story short, they called me out and I wasn't looking to be institutionalized or whatever they were threatening."

"Did you end up seeing a counselor?"

"You mean a therapist?" Beca snorted. "I appreciate your delicate phrasing but yeah, I had to see a shrink. I thought I could just start up eating again but every time I went to do that, I just kind of froze. My friends had everything to do with why I got help in the first place but once I started seeing someone regularly, I obviously ran into other patients in the waiting room. I was noticeably underweight but some of these girls looked half dead. It was scary."

Chloe remained silent and tried to offer as much physical support and comfort as she could. This was possible the most open Beca had ever been with her about her past. The brunette had always been evasive about the subject of her parents and now she was explaining so much without her literally needing to drag each word from the dj. The older girl really wanted to press on these fights the other girl had spoken about; she wanted to know just how violent they'd gotten and what the final straw was for the older Mitchells but she was afraid that if she uttered so much as a sound, the spell would be broken and Beca would stop talking.

"You aren't scared of being skin and bones anymore?" Chloe questioned; her tone was firm and skeptical but not unkind.

"I didn't mean for it to get this out of hand," she answered. Her voice was surprisingly calm and the med student started to build up hope that _her_ Beca was coming back to the surface.

"But you learned techniques from the old counselor right? We can apply those now," the taller girl led on. "I would really love it if you started seeing someone else here but that's something that we can talk about more later."

"It's complicated Chlo. I can't start eating like you or Aubrey or any normal person right away. I'd throw it up, my stomach has adjusted to accommodate the amount of food that I give it and if I suddenly switched back to large or frequent portions, I'd be sick."

Chloe nodded, she knew this from her medical training but she was a little surprised that Beca had as in depth knowledge on the subject.

"Where do we go from here?" Beca asked, swinging her legs on the bed.

"Well, I guess for now we go home. We talk to Aubrey and we try to figure out a way to identify what triggers you," The redhead suggested.

Beca nodded, "I guess it's a start."

The two girls gathered the few belongings they'd brought and took the hospital back door to avoid the awkwardness that accompanied hiding their relationship.

The car ride home wasn't silent in a nervously charged energy kind of way but it was quiet. Both girls were obviously thinking deeply on the interaction they'd just had. Beca wasn't entirely sure that she wanted her girlfriends' help with her 'issue' but now definitely didn't seem like an appropriate time to mention that.

As devastated as Chloe was to learn about Beca's childhood and current weight, she couldn't help but think back on their relationship and how much this piece of the brunette's history was explained. She was sure that there was still plenty that the other girl was keeping under wraps but certain things just made sense now. For example, Beca could not stand the sound of glass shattering. Aubrey had accidentally dropped a glass after run one day; her hands had been wet and it slipped right out of her grip and broke apart into thousands of pieces. Of course the sound was unpleasant to everyone but Beca went completely rigid. She'd made some poor excuse and left the living room and retreated into 'her' bedroom to finish what she'd been doing. At the time, Chloe had assumed that the DJ had sensitive ears and was working on something important and didn't want to be disturbed by the sounds of the living room but now it seemed that she could chalk that reaction up to the aftermath of the divorce.

Beca spent the car ride praying she'd made the right choice and that opening up to Chloe would bring them closer together. This could easily turn into something that the brunette would regret but if their relationship was going to work out as she desperately wanted it to, Beca knew she had to put a little more trust in her girls and she was trying to do just that.

* * *

Part of Chloe hoped that by the time she and Beca returned home, Aubrey would be asleep and she would have a little more time to figure out what Beca meant by keeping things between the two of them. She wasn't sure why it felt so wrong to ask the other girl point blank but they'd already made so much progress tonight, she didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that. But of course, Chloe was not that lucky. The second she unlocked the apartment door and ushered the thin girl inside, she was met with the stressed face of their girlfriend.

"What the hell took you guys so long? It's been like 2 hours," Aubrey stressed. "And would it have honestly killed you to pick up your phones?"

"We're sorry Bree," Chloe answered for them both. "We got kind of carried away in conversation and things took a little longer than expected."

Aubrey fought to control her facial expression. She wanted to sarcastically tease both the other girls and point out that she'd been saying all along that this appointment would not be a quick visit but based on the somewhat somber mood of the other girls, she didn't push her luck.

"Okay," she nodded, accepting the answer.

The former captain kept her eyes trained on her girls, as if trying to prompt them into explaining what had gone down at the hospital. When it became clear that neither girl was willing to share voluntarily, she asked them how it had gone.

"Can we do this tomorrow? I have early classes and then Bella's practice but I thought maybe we could do dinner afterwards if you two aren't busy," Beca offered.

Aubrey wanted to protest, surely it was not a good sign that both girls were so against talking about their visit but rather than start an argument, she relented.

"Sure. I have some paperwork to file for the ADA and a case report to write up after court tomorrow but I should be able to get home at a reasonable time. Chlo?"

The ginger nodded her agreement, "That works for me too. Becs it's already so late, why don't you just stay here tonight?"

As much as Beca wanted to put up a fight, nothing sounded better to her than staying the night here, where she still felt she belonged.

"Yeah that would be great, if you're both good with it?"

The two girls were sad that Beca felt like she needed their permission to sleep in what they both still considered to be their shared apartment.

"We'd love that," Aubrey said, offering her warmest smile and extending her hand. It took everything in her to keep the control freak locked up and not demand answers but for now, she content to hold Beca in her arms and have a relaxing sleep with her girls.

 **So here we kind of get more of a glimpse into Beca's past; I definitely think there will be more of that to come. Next chapter there will be a very important character coming into play and then in the chapter after that another so get excited for that.**

 **I wanted to thank everyone who reviewed and personal messaged me. I was a little nervous about the last chapter and the kind of different direction it took and the response was so encouraging. You guys have been beyond amazing and so supportive and your comments are so, so lovely to read you guys have no idea how important you and they are to me. I wish I could reply to each individual comment to tell you guys how awesome you are but: Kdubya, haytsun, GoodGirlGG, Monica628, UnfamiliarSky, Mjnz, Sad Fransico, and all of my guest reviewers, thank you from the bottom of my heart.**

 **I've already started up the next chapter but sadly college resumes for me this coming Monday so I will try my best to get the next update in by then but if not it'll be along shortly.**


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